(AFP)
YANGON — A senior US official will visit Myanmar this week for talks with government figures and democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest last month, an official said Monday.
Joseph Y. Yun, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is due to arrive on Tuesday for the first high-level talks between the two countries since Myanmar's election and Suu Kyi's release.
Yun "will come here to talk with the government as well as to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi," said the Myanmar official, declining to be named.
"They will discuss matters between the US and Myanmar," he told AFP, adding that the trip was scheduled for December 7 to 10.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), confirmed the opposition leader would meet the US official.
"We haven't set the exact time and date yet. But they will meet for sure during the visit," he said.
A US embassy spokesman in Yangon was not available to comment.
Suu Kyi was freed from detention on November 13, days after a rare election which has been widely panned by international observers including US President Barack Obama, who said Myanmar's "bankrupt regime" had stolen the vote.
His administration launched dialogue with Myanmar's military rulers last year after concluding that Western attempts to isolate the regime had produced little success.
Nobel Peace Laureate Suu Kyi, who spent 15 of the last 21 years locked up, has welcomed this engagement but warned against "rose-coloured glasses", saying greater human rights and economic progress were still needed.
She told CNN in an interview last month that Washington must be "keeping your eyes open and alert and seeing what is really going on, and where engagement is leading to and what changes really need to be brought about".
In November 2009 and May this year, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Kurt Campbell travelled to Myanmar to meet government officials and Suu Kyi, while she was still under house arrest.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
YANGON — A senior US official will visit Myanmar this week for talks with government figures and democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest last month, an official said Monday.
Joseph Y. Yun, deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, is due to arrive on Tuesday for the first high-level talks between the two countries since Myanmar's election and Suu Kyi's release.
Yun "will come here to talk with the government as well as to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi," said the Myanmar official, declining to be named.
"They will discuss matters between the US and Myanmar," he told AFP, adding that the trip was scheduled for December 7 to 10.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), confirmed the opposition leader would meet the US official.
"We haven't set the exact time and date yet. But they will meet for sure during the visit," he said.
A US embassy spokesman in Yangon was not available to comment.
Suu Kyi was freed from detention on November 13, days after a rare election which has been widely panned by international observers including US President Barack Obama, who said Myanmar's "bankrupt regime" had stolen the vote.
His administration launched dialogue with Myanmar's military rulers last year after concluding that Western attempts to isolate the regime had produced little success.
Nobel Peace Laureate Suu Kyi, who spent 15 of the last 21 years locked up, has welcomed this engagement but warned against "rose-coloured glasses", saying greater human rights and economic progress were still needed.
She told CNN in an interview last month that Washington must be "keeping your eyes open and alert and seeing what is really going on, and where engagement is leading to and what changes really need to be brought about".
In November 2009 and May this year, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs Kurt Campbell travelled to Myanmar to meet government officials and Suu Kyi, while she was still under house arrest.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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