Obama, in an Emerging Myanmar, Vows Support
Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters
President Obama in Yangon, Myanmar, with the opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday.
By PETER BAKER
Published: November 18, 2012
YANGON, Myanmar — President Obama
journeyed to this storied tropical outpost of pagodas and jungles on
Monday to “extend the hand of friendship” as a land long tormented by
repression and poverty begins to throw off military rule and emerge from
decades of isolation.
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Mr. Obama arrived here as the first sitting American president to visit
Myanmar with the hope of solidifying the stunning changes that have
transformed this Southeast Asian country and encouraging additional
progress toward a more democratic system. With the promise of more
financial assistance, Mr. Obama vowed to “support you every step of the
way.”
The president was greeted on a mild, muggy day by tens of thousands of
people lining the road from the airport — and by further promises of
reform by the government, which announced a series of specific
commitments regarding the release of political prisoners and the end of
ethnic violence. Though Mr. Obama planned to stay just six hours, his
visit was seen here as a validation of a new era.
He made a point of meeting at the government headquarters with President Thein Sein and also planned a personal pilgrimage to the home of the opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
where she was confined under house arrest for most of two decades
before her release two years ago. Amid the manicured lawn and
well-tended garden outside the elegant two-story lakeside house, the
president and the Nobel-winning dissident planned to stand side by side
celebrating change that once seemed unimaginable.
While local leaders attribute the changes so far to internal factors and
decisions, Mr. Obama was eager to claim a measure of credit. He has
played nursemaid to the opening of Myanmar, formerly and still known by
many as Burma, by sending the first American ambassador in 22 years,
easing sanctions and meeting with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi in Washington.
Later Monday he was to announce the return of the United States Agency
for International Development along with $170 million for projects over
the next two years, noting that in his inaugural address he had vowed to
reach out to those “willing to unclench your fist.”
“So today, I have come to keep my promise and extend the hand of
friendship,” read the text of prepared remarks to be delivered at the
University of Yangon. He promised to “help rebuild an economy” and
develop new institutions that can be sustained. “The flickers of
progress that we have seen must not be extinguished — they must become a
shining north star for all this nation’s people.”
Although human rights activists criticized his visit as premature
because of remaining political prisoners and unsettled violence racking
parts of the country, Mr. Obama used the occasion to nudge Myanmar to
move further. He noted that democracy is about constraints on power,
pointing to his own limits as president.
“That is how you must reach for the future you deserve,” he said in the
prepared remarks, “a future where a single prisoner of conscience is one
too many and the law is stronger than any leader, where no child is
made to be a soldier and no woman is exploited, where national security
is strengthened by a military that serves under civilians and a
constitution guarantees that only those who are elected by the people
may govern.”
Under Mr. Thein Sein, a former general, many political prisoners have
been released and media restrictions have been eased. Ms. Aung San Suu
Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, was allowed to run in
elections and she won a seat in parliament. Even before Air Force One landed here, Mr. Thein Sein offered a further gesture.
His office announced that the government would set up a process to
review the fate of remaining political prisoners by the end of the year,
allow international human rights organizations more access to prisons
and conflict zones and take “decisive action” to stop violence against
the country’s minority Muslim population.
More than 200 political prisoners remain in custody, and the government
has waged a brutal campaign against insurgents in Kachin State. Human
Rights Watch said Sunday that satellite imagery showed violence, arson
and extensive destruction of homes in Rohingya Muslim areas in Arakan
State by ethnic Arakans in October, which it said was carried out with
support of state security forces and local government officials.
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