The way forward
January 6, 2012
As the first British foreign secretary to visit Myanmar in more than 50 years wrapped up his historic tour of the country on Friday, there was a sense of tentative optimism in the air. While Myanmar watchers say it would be naive to think William Hague's visit will herald any significant change, at this stage, the keyword remains fixed: momentum.
Britain's top diplomat - and by proxy a representative for Europe - stuck to the line that the world needed to see more progress on fundamental freedoms in Myanmar before it would ease trade, investment and visa bans and really come to the table on talks about the country's future. His trip was the latest round of international diplomacy aimed at urging on the nascent Burmese reform process.
"I made clear that the British government stands ready to respond positively to evidence of further progress towards lasting improvement in human rights and political freedom that the people of Burma seek," Hague said in a statement following talks in the capital, Naypyitaw, with President Thein Sein. The Burmese president, who took office in March, 2011, is a former junta general who has overseen a number of promising steps, such as releasing an estimated 347 political detainees and indicating a desire to reach out to the international community.
The Burmese government has been promising a release of its political prisoners since it took power. Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwi reaffirmed in talks with Hague that commitments "have been made to release political prisoners." Hague emphasized, however, that "the world will judge the government by its actions."
Swap that didn’t happen
Myanmar has been diplomatically and economically out in the cold for years over its human rights history since a bloody crackdown of pro-democracy demonstration in 1988, when hundreds of students, monks, journalists and lawyers were detained, giving way to subsequent acts of suppression under the junta that ruled the country until elections in 2010 replaced it with a military-backed civilian government.
Many of those arrested in 1988 remain in prison despite calls for their release from the international community. In 2011, the new government granted two general amnesties and hundreds were released, followed by another amnesty at the beginning of January, 2012.
But the latest act of clemency saw the release of only around a dozen, to the dismay of the international community, who had expected a final general amnesty to free all of the country’s estimated 600 to 2,000 political detainees and prisoners of conscience.
Instead, prison sentences were merely shortened.
New approach
Benjamin Zawacki, Myanmar expert for rights group Amnesty International, said Western governments had calculated that increased engagement could advance their human rights and economic interests "much more effectively than through the previous policy, which was strictly a policy of levying pressure, sanctions and isolation."
Zawacki told Deutsche Welle that the Burmese government had so far failed to rise to the challenges set by the international community. While Hague's visit "has increased the pressure on the Burmese to respond, ... at the same time it also heightens the concerns we had vis-à-vis Clinton's visit that perhaps these high-level missions don't seem to be responded to," Zawacki said.
Nonetheless, Ute Koester, coordinator for the Burma-Initiative at the Essen-based Asia Foundation, is hopeful that such visits "will speed up reforms." In Koester's opinion, "parts of the ruling class are willing to have reforms," she said, adding that this should be accompanied by a loosening of sanctions.
Suu Kyi's hope
The language and motives employed by Hague during his two-day trip echoed those of US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who met Thein Sein and resurgent opposition leader and rights icon Aung San Suu Kyi last December.
Hague also met with Suu Kyi, whom herself has recently grown cautiously positive about Myanmar's future after being welcomed back into the fold following an invitation for talks with Thein Sein. After the meeting with Hague, the Nobel peace laureate reiterated that a release of political prisoners and an end to the ethnic conflict within the country were preconditions for the lifting of international sanctions. She has also expressed optimism that she will live to see fully democratic elections in her country.
The recent flurry of activity about Myanmar looks set to be buttressed by confirmation from the European Union on Friday that it planned to open a representative office in the Burmese commercial hub, Yangon.
The next big hurdle for the country will be the by-elections scheduled for April 1. The National League for Democracy, the repressed opposition group headed by Suu Kyi, officially registered as a political party on Thursday. There are even hopes Suu Kyi herself could be propelled into parliament by the upcoming polls, though it is not likely the majority held by the army and the ruling government will be threatened.
Author: Darren Mara
Editor: Sarah Berning