Burma's Suu Kyi discusses US sanctions

Burma's Suu Kyi discusses US sanctions
October 9, 2009 - 6:54PM

Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has discussed sanctions against military-ruled Burma in a rare meeting with Western diplomats, the US embassy in Rangoon says.

The Nobel Laureate met with the heads of the US, UK and Australian embassies for one hour at a government guesthouse on Friday, following a letter she wrote to the junta chief, embassy spokesman Drake Weisert told AFP.

"The meeting follows Aung San Suu Kyi's request in a letter to Senior General Than Shwe to meet representatives of the US and other countries to discuss their respective policies on sanctions," he said.

"We can confirm that sanctions were discussed at the meeting. However, we do not want to pre-empt Aung San Suu Kyi's discussions with the authorities by discussing the details of the meeting," he added.

© 2009 AFP http://news. smh.com.au/ breaking- news-world/ burmas-suu- kyi-discusses- us-sanctions- 20091009- gqml.html



Aung San Suu Kyi on 'remarkable form,' says British envoy
Posted : Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:53:10 GMT
By : dpa



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London - Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was on "remarkable form" and "very engaged" during a meeting with Western diplomats, British ambassador Andrew Heyn said Friday. "She was in remarkable form for someone who has been through what she has been through. She was very, very engaged in the subject, very interested in going into the detail of what she wanted to talk about, and she seemed, as ever, very eloquent and very, very engaged," Heyn told the BBC in an interview.

The British ambassador represented the European Union (EU) at the meeting in which US acting Charge d'Affaires Thomas Vajda and Australian Deputy Head of Mission, Simon Christopher Starr, also took part.

Asked about the prospect of sanctions against the regime in Myanmar being lifted, Heyn said the British government believed that sanctions were sending a "strong political message to the Burmese authorities about our real determination to see genuine democratic reform."

The fact that the regime was making a point of complaining about sanctions were proof that they were having an effect, said the British envoy.

"But what we have also made clear is that we will respond to substantive progress towards democracy in respect of human rights but we have to see concrete progress on the ground," he said.

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