WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States should broaden engagement with Myanmar to reach more of the population, taking a long-term view despite growing concern over upcoming elections, a study said Wednesday.AFP – Passers by are seen in a downtown Yangon street with the Sule Pagoda, a landmark temple, in the background.(AFP/Voishmel)
The New York-based Asia Society set up a task force with leading figures of both major US parties to chart a way forward after President Barack Obama's administration last year launched a dialogue with the military regime.
The study broadly endorsed Obama's approach but had no illusions about the difficulties ahead, warning that the junta may try to use talks with the United States to confer legitimacy on elections it is holding later this year.
The task force said the United States could tighten or remove sanctions on the regime based on progress but should ramp up assistance to ordinary people including non-governmental organizations, farmers and small businesses.
"This is what we can do -- we can work with the population," retired general Wesley Clark, a former Democratic presidential candidate and co-chair of the task force, told a news conference introducing the report.
"What we wanted to do was lay out a positive direction where the leadership in Burma could take a step forward and see the benefits that could occur if they would do that," Clark said, using Myanmar's former name.
The other co-chair was Henrietta Fore, who was director of foreign aid under Republican president George W. Bush. Task force members included billionaire philanthropist George Soros and Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen.
The upcoming elections will be the first in Myanmar since 1990. That vote was swept by the National League for Democracy (NLD) but it was never allowed to take power and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has spent most of the time since under house arrest.
The NLD on Monday decided to boycott this year's election after the junta imposed laws, criticized around the world, that would have forced the party to oust Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi as its leader.
Priscilla Clapp, the former chief of mission at the US embassy in Myanmar and a principal adviser on the report, said it was important to take the "long view" beyond the election.
"My feeling is we just need to sit back and express our concerns very loudly and clearly and make it clear what will lead to a productive relationship with the United States ultimately, but not expect that we can have a lot of effect on what's happening right now during the elections," she said.
The study said that the NLD should remain the "focal point" of US support, but that Washington should also reach out to civil society and ethnic minorities.
The study cautioned against US overconfidence, saying that its influence in the reclusive nation was limited and acknowledging that Myanmar was unlikely to become a top priority in Washington.
It said the United States should work to coordinate policy with key regional players including China, India and Myanmar's fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
China in November started building an oil pipeline in Myanmar and has been the junta's chief diplomatic backer.
But the report's authors warned not to exaggerate China's role, suggesting that Beijing was "pragmatic" and had little love for the junta.
"We make a lot of the pipeline deal as if it were the essence of energy in China. It isn't; it's going to represent a very small percentage of China's energy resources," Clapp said.
"I don't think they have nearly the kind of influence that we assume they have over the government," she said.
China last year reprimanded Myanmar over fighting in Kokang, a largely ethnic Chinese region of Shan state, a rare occasion in which Beijing has initiated criticism of another country's domestic situation.
Source :http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100401/wl_afp/usmyanmardiplomacy_20100401063859
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