Two prominent Myanmar opposition leaders sent a joint appeal Tuesday to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging her to keep sanctions

http://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/the-opposition-figures-%E2%80%94-ashin-aww-bar-sa-of-the-all-burma-monks%E2%80%99-alliance-and-tun-myint-aung-of-the-88-generation-students-%E2%80%94-said-they-signed-the-letter-in-a-hiding-place-as-t/


The opposition figures — Ashin Aww Bar Sa of the All Burma Monks’ Alliance and Tun Myint Aung of the 88 Generation Students — said they signed the letter in a hiding place as they fear they will be arrested imminently.
2009 May 6
tags: 88 students, Burma, Junta, monks, world focus on Burmaby peacerunningMyanmar opposition appeals to Clinton
May 6, 2009
Agence France Presse: Two prominent Myanmar opposition leaders sent a joint appeal Tuesday to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, urging her to keep sanctions on the military regime and engage regional powers.
The opposition figures — Ashin Aww Bar Sa of the All Burma Monks’ Alliance and Tun Myint Aung of the 88 Generation Students — said they signed the letter in a hiding place as they fear they will be arrested imminently.
In the letter, the two asked the United States to maintain sanctions until the junta releases political prisoners and enters “meaningful” dialogue with the opposition.
The junta has “been complaining that the US and Western nations that have imposed sanctions are making the people poor, our country underdeveloped and our economy destroyed,” they wrote in the letter.
“Let us be clear — it is the military junta and its disastrous economic policies, terror, corruption, illegal rule and mismanagement that have turned one of the richest countries in Asia into one of the least developed in the world,” they wrote.
US President Barack Obama’s administration is conducting a review of policy on Myanmar, also known as Burma, whose junta has kept democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for nearly two decades.
A senior State Department official recently told Congress that the administration was not considering lifting sanctions. A prominent US senator, Jim Webb, has supported an eventual end to sanctions, saying the current approach was not working.
In the letter, the Myanmar opposition leaders supported US efforts to hold direct dialogue with the junta but said Washington needed to reach the country’s top leader, Senior General Than Shwe.
They also called on the United States to engage other nations in a solution on Myanmar including China — the junta’s main backer — and nations in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The All Burma Monks’ Alliance and 88 Generation Students were both involved in protests in 2007 that started as rallies over the rising cost of living but escalated into the regime’s biggest threat in nearly 20 years.
At least 31 people were killed when security forces cracked down on the protesters, according to the United Nations.