Burma diplomacy failing: U.S. official
Election laws barring opposition leader seen as a setback to democratic reform
Last Updated: Friday, March 12, 2010 | 8:25 AM ET
CBC News
Washington's efforts to engage the military junta of Burma in dialogue aren't working, a senior U.S. official says, citing the regime's decision to bar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from upcoming elections.
U.S. assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell said the administration of Barack Obama had hoped moving away from a policy of isolation would help in the push for democratic reform in Burma, also known as Myanmar.
But election laws released this week prohibiting Suu Kyi from running or even voting are a setback to efforts at real reform, he said.
"The U.S. approach was to try to encourage domestic dialogue between the key stakeholders, and the recent promulgation of the election criteria doesn't leave much room for such a dialogue," said Campbell.
Opposition leader barred from voting
The military junta in control of Burma has drawn fire from the United Nations and human rights groups for its jailing of political prisoners and repeated crackdowns on dissent.
An election law announced Wednesday prohibits anyone convicted of a crime from being a member of a political party, making Suu Kyi ineligible to become a candidate in the elections — or even a member of the party she co-founded and heads.
In August, the 64-year-old Suu Kyi was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest by briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside residence, and was sentenced to 18 more months of detention.
The U.S. has said it will not lift sanctions on Myanmar, unless there is concrete progress toward democratic reform — including freeing Suu Kyi and letting her party participate in elections.
The upcoming elections will be the first since 1990, when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory. The junta ignored the results of that vote and has kept Suu Kyi jailed or under detention for 14 of the past 20 years.
Fleeing Muslims picked up in Malaysia
Also on Friday, Malaysian authorities say they have picked up 93 Muslim men who say they spent 30 days at sea in a crowded boat after fleeing persecution in Burma.
The men are Rohingya, an ethnic group with about 800,000 people living in Burma, where they are denied full citizenship and face widespread abuses, rights groups say.
Zainuddin Mohamad Suki, an officer with the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, reported that the men said they had been chased out of Thai waters before making their way to the northern resort island of Langkawi.
Thailand has denied they chased the boat away, saying food and water was given before the boat continued on its way.
Malaysia has about 14,000 Rohingya refugees, many of whom have stayed for years in the country working illegally in plantations or factories.
With files from The Associated Press
