Campbell arrived Sunday and met with senior junta officials in the remote administrative capital of Naypyidaw before flying Monday to Rangoon, the biggest city. Among the officials he met were Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Information Minister Kyaw San and Science and Technology Minister U Thaung—Burma's former envoy in Washington—who is the point person for the US-Burma engagement.
Relations between Burma and the US have been strained since its military crushed pro-democracy protests in 1988, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators. Since then, Washington has been Burma's strongest critic, applying political and economic sanctions against the junta for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.
Campbell, however, said he would continue a dialogue with all sides in Burma as part of a new Washington policy of engagement rather than isolation of the ruling generals.
Last year President Barack Obama reversed the Bush administration's isolation of Burma in favor of dialogue with the junta.
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