Senator Wins Promise to Free American in Myanmar

Senator Wins Promise to Free American in Myanmar
By SETH MYDANS
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: August 15, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/world/asia/16myanmar.html?ref=global-home


BANGKOK — Senator Jim Webb of Virginia held a rare meeting on Saturday in Myanmar with the leader of the ruling junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and emerged with a promise to free a detained American, officials said, at a time when the United States has said it is reassessing its hard line toward Myanmar’s repressive military government.

The senator’s office said he had secured the release of the American, John Yettaw, who was sentenced to prison on Tuesday after intruding into the home of the pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

In another gesture by the government, Mr. Webb, a Democrat, was allowed to meet with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced at the same trial to 18 months of added house arrest, arousing international condemnation. She has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest.

Most visiting foreign officials are denied permission to meet her, most recently United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in July.

Mr. Yettaw will be officially deported and will join Mr. Webb on a military aircraft to Bangkok on Sunday, according to the statement by the senator’s office.

“I am grateful to the Myanmar government for honoring these requests,” Mr. Webb said in the statement. “It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying the foundations of good will and confidence building in the future,” he said.

These positive signals are part of a tentative process of re-engagement that has been under way for some time, said David I. Steinberg, director of Asian studies at Georgetown University and an expert on Myanmar.

“What can actually happen as a result is another matter,” he said. Any concrete changes, like easing economic sanctions or even appointing an ambassador, will need confirmation from a potentially hostile congress, he said.

In February, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton opened the discussion of a change, saying the longstanding policy of economic sanctions and political confrontation had failed to have an effect on the junta.

In calling for the release of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi last month, Mrs. Clinton said, “This would open up, at least for my government, a lot of opportunities for engagement and that includes investment and other forms of exchange.”

Last week, both Mrs. Clinton and President Obama criticized the verdict against her in relatively measured language, calling it “unjust” and repeating a demand for her release.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, was convicted along with two house mates of violating the terms of her house arrest in May after Mr. Yettaw, 53, swam across a lake and spent two days at her home.

Mr. Yettaw, of Falcon, Mo., was sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor. An unemployed veteran, he said he had been on a mission to protect her from assassins.

Senior administration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the trip, said Friday that Mr. Webb was traveling independently and “not carrying a message from the administration,” although he had been briefed by the State Department before he left. But as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific affairs, Mr. Webb has been a strong proponent of moving to a new policy of engagement with the ruling generals — a view in sync with Mrs. Clinton’s and Mr. Obama’s statements.

Still, any easing of sanctions will face strong opposition from lobbying groups and some members of Congress who say democratic changes in Myanmar must come first.

Mr. Webb’s visit also drew criticism from Burmese exile groups who are wary of engagement and familiar with the junta’s manipulation of previous visits by envoys from the United Nations for propaganda purposes.

In a letter addressed to the senator, the groups warned that his visit would be exploited by the junta as an endorsement of its human rights record, including its treatment of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and an estimated 2,100 other political prisoners.

Government-controlled newspapers and television stations have given wide coverage to the visit, showing the senator in official meetings with various groups and leaders.

In a separate letter this week, dissidents inside Myanmar reminded the senator of the government’s human rights violations that have drawn condemnation from Washington.

“As we are in hiding to avoid arrest, torture and imprisonment of the regime, we would not have a chance to meet you when you are in our country,” the letter said.

Speaking in Congress in June, Senator Webb presented his rationale for engagement.

“Aung San Suu Kyi’s ongoing trial is the latest incident in a cycle that’s been virtually unchanged for 60 years, and in that time, particularly over the past 10 years, the United States’ ability to influence events in Burma has steadily waned,” he said.

“Businesses, NGOs, government groups have been ousted. Meanwhile, other countries, not only China but most notably China, are more engaged than ever with infrastructure projects, mineral resources.”

Before meeting with the senior general, the senator met with Myanmar’s prime minister, Gen. Thein Sein, and with three representatives of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy.

The party won more than 80 percent of the seats in parliamentary elections in 1990 but was denied its place in government as the military annulled the results and clung to power.

Mr. Webb’s official meetings were held in the remote administrative capital, Naypyidaw. He met with Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, the main city and former capital. He was scheduled to meet with locally based reporters on Sunday. Most foreign journalists are barred from entering the country.

Mr. Webb arrived in Myanmar on Friday from Laos. He will also visit Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.