Obama: Burma’s reforms backsliding
NAYPYIDAW—US President Barack Obama told rulers of Burma (Myanmar) its celebrated democratic reforms are backsliding, ahead of a regional summit on Thursday designed to showcase the country’s transition from Army-led isolation.
Obama will meet his Burma counterpart Thein Sein, a former general turned reformer, on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit here in the capital of Naypyidaw, as well as other Southeast Asian leaders.
Obama set the tone for his meeting with hard-hitting comments on the pace of reforms in an interview with Burma news website The Irrawaddy published just before he arrived on Wednesday night.
“Progress has not come as fast as many had hoped when the transition began four years ago. In some areas there has been a slowdown in reforms, and even some steps backward,” he said. “In addition to restrictions on freedom of the press, we continue to see violations of basic human rights and abuses in the country’s ethnic areas, including reports of extrajudicial killings, rape and forced labor.”
International concern is also focused on the plight of Muslim Rohingya minority trapped in desperate camps in western Rakhine State as a result of waves of bloodshed with local Buddhists two years ago.
Serious humanitarian issue
UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon on Wednesday raised the “serious humanitarian issue” of Burma’s Rohingya, around 140,000 of whom languish in fetid displacement camps with the country’s leaders.
“I encouraged the leaders of Burma to uphold human rights, take a strong stance against incitement and ensure humanitarian access to Rohingya living in vulnerable conditions,” he said.
Today, Obama will offer a show of support to Burma’s famed democracy heroine and fellow Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, traveling to meet her in the commercial hub of Rangoon.
Suu Kyi had preceded Obama’s trip with her own warning against “over-optimism” about democracy in Burma, as the nation heads for crucial general elections next year.
Obama has framed Burma’s reform process, which began in 2011 when Thein Sein took the helm of a quasi-civilian government, as an example of the posi- tive effects of Washington’s engagement. His administration has in recent years made a major foreign policy “pivot” towards Asia and until now Burma’s baby steps towards democracy have been trumpeted as a success for that strategy.
Burma saw the removal of most Western sanctions as it released the majority of political prisoners and loosened draconian press censorship, allowing a flurry of investor interest in the country seen as an exciting virgin market.