Aung San Suu Kyi actually allowed to meet with foreign reps – is the junta going soft?
Myanmar’s military rulers allowed Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the country’s democracy movement, to hold a rare meeting with foreign diplomats on Friday as part of early, tentative signs of a détente between the junta and Western governments. The meeting focused on Western sanctions against the country, diplomats in the capital said. Aung San Suu Kyi has provoked the ire of the junta with her support for sanctions, but she has signalled a willingness to reconsider this position. The UK ambassador, representing the EU, said, “She was at great pains to say that this was fact-finding and that she had reached no policy view yet.” US and Australian diplomats also attended and a spokesperson for the US embassy said the hastily arranged meeting lasted an hour. The US is, itself, beginning the process of reassessing sanctions in place after the government ignored the results of the 1990 election.
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