Barack Obama will risk controversy to become the first serving US president to visit Burma later this month on his first trip overseas since his re-election.
During what is likely to be a short stop in the secretive and still repressive southeast Asian country, Obama will meet both the country's president, Thein Sein, and Aung San Suu Kyi, the veteran democracy campaigner and Nobel prize laureate.
White House officials confirmed reports from senior government officials in Burma that the president would travel there. The visit is likely to provoke great excitement – as well as concern and anger – among some Burmese. His presence would be the most significant endorsement yet by the international community of Burmese reforms and its government.
Representatives of ethnic minorities in Burma, long subject to human rights abuses by the military rulers and their forces, on Thursday criticised his decision.
"This is good for the new government but I'm not sure it is good for minorities and especially the Kachin people," said Goon Tawng, a representative of the Kachin ethnic minority who are based in the north of the country and have periodically fought Burmese authorities.
"We recognise there have been some reforms but these are not deep and if you look at the ethnic areas there are still human rights violations and fighting going on," said Tawng, who is based in the UK.
Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said Obama was rushing to "normalise relations" with Burma, adding: "But Burma isn't a normal country, it is not a democracy and still has one of the worst human rights records in the world."
In March 2011, nearly half a century of repressive military rule ended when a quasi-civilian government took power and initiated sweeping changes. The US and EU suspended sanctions on Burma this year in recognition of the political and economic reforms.
Though media and labour laws have been relaxed and hundreds of political prisoners released, the military is still responsible for widespread human rights abuses and many fear democratic progress might be reversed at any time.
In recent weeks there has been renewed violence aimed at Muslim Rohingya people in the west of the country, with hundreds killed and tens of thousands displaced.
Mabrur Ahmed, director of Restless Beings, a UK-based campaign group, said Obama's visit would be "good for the US and good for Burma in the long run" even if it was bad for Rohingya people in the short term. "There will no doubt be some pressure [from Obama] on the Kachin, Karen, Rohingya too even, but [his visit] is really about solidifying moves to full bilateral trade," he said.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years in detention under the military as the figurehead of the pro-democracy movement and was elected to parliament in April, has been criticised for not speaking out sufficiently strongly on ethnic issues.
In Rangoon, Burma's commercial and cultural capital, many were happy about the visit. Maung Zaw, a 41-year-old English teacher, said he was very excited by the prospect of seeing the US president. "This is amazing for us. We could never have imagined it happening."
There are strategic and economic advantages for the US in any rapprochement with Burma, ruled from the isolated new capital of Naypyitaw.
The country has abundant resources and low-cost labour as well as a potentially huge new market for consumer goods. It is also strategically situated, and it grew close to China during decades of isolation, reinforced by western sanctions.
One reason for the new reform push may be that the army hopes to balance close relations with Beijing with new ties to other regional powers and the west. The trip fits with Obama's broader strategic "pivot", involving efforts to reinforce US influence in the Asia-Pacific region as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down.
In November last year Hillary Clinton became the first US secretary of state to visit Burma in more than 50 years.
Obama is already travelling to south-east Asia to attend meetings in Cambodia associated with the annual summit of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
The heads of government of China, Japan, Russia and other countries, are also expected in Cambodia. For almost all it is likely to be the first opportunity to personally congratulate the newly re-elected president.
Several world leaders have already asked Obama to visit during his second term. On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin said he had invited the US president to go to Moscow next year, despite the faltering "reset" between the two erstwhile superpower rivals, and accusations from the Kremlin that the US state department was behind recent anti-Putin street protests.
Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor and Europe's most powerful leader, when congratulating the president Obama, added: "I would be pleased to welcome you again soon as my guest in Germany."
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/obamas-visit-to-burma-will-include-meeting-with-aung-san-suu-kyi/
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