U.S. to seek ASEAN cooperation on new Myanmar tack

http://uk.reuters.com/article/usPoliticsNews/idUKTRE51O3D920090225

Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:44pm GMT Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+]
1 of 1Full SizeHANOI (Reuters) - The United States wants Southeast Asian states to press for reform, openness and political progress in Myanmar, while seeking views on a new approach toward the military-ruled country, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Wednesday.

The comments come after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced during a visit to Asia last week that the United States was taking a fresh look at its policy on Myanmar to seek ways to sway the country's ruling junta.

"What we're asking of other ASEAN members really is, first and foremost, welcome their thoughts and ideas on how we can best work together," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel told reporters in Vietnam.

"And second, that they use whatever contacts and access that they have in the country to encourage new thinking and reform, increased openness and political progress," he said.



Marciel said the U.S. goal "remains to encourage release of political prisoners, dialogue between the government and the people and the opposition, and overall progress."

He said Washington wants Myanmar to stop "going in a negative direction."

Washington has gradually tightened sanctions on the generals who have ruled the former Burma for more than four decades to try to force them into political rapprochement with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy.

Myanmar's opposition won a 1990 election landslide only to be denied power. Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for more than half of the past two decades.

Clinton, however, said that neither the sanctions nor ASEAN's non-interference approach has worked, and there was a need for new thinking in Myanmar policy.
Marciel also serves as U.S. Ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. He will attend the annual ASEAN summit in Hua Hin, Thailand this weekend.

(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Paul Tait)