The US-Burma Connection

Burma is nowhere close to America geographically—the Southeast Asian nation is sandwiched between the two most populous countries in the world, rising powers China and India. However, Washington has a growing strategic interest in Burma and is a vital player in shaping the international community’s Burma policy and the collective efforts to bring democracy and human rights to the long-oppressed people of the country.

Some critics have argued for years that Washington’s brand of megaphone and big stick diplomacy will never work to bring about change in Burma. But it seems that the Obama administration’s current dual track approach—of engagement coupled with sanctions—has been the most effective international Burma policy to date, helping both to prod the Burmese government into opening up to constructive dialogue and motivating it to make changes that it may not otherwise have made.

“In Burma, where the United States has consistently advocated for democratic reforms and human rights, we are witnessing the first stirrings of change in decades,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an address to the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii on Thursday.

Aung Zaw is founder and editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at [email protected].

While noting that many open questions remain, including the issues of political prisoners and conflicts with ethnic groups, Clinton said that the Burmese government will find a partner in the US if they pursue a policy of genuine and lasting reform that benefits the people of the country.

As the US secretary of state said, the US has long supported Burma’s democracy movement, investing diplomatic capital in the effort and openly supporting its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for the two decades following the deadly crackdown by the previous Burmese military regime on the 1988 mass uprising.

In the subsequent years, Washington downgraded its diplomatic relationship with Burma, cut off foreign aid and imposed strong sanctions on the previous regime, its leaders and its cronies—sanctions that were passed by the US Congress and continue to receive bi-partisan support.

In 2010, the Burmese regime orchestrated an election under the auspices of a military-drafted Constitution. Most of the political leaders of the new government, both in the executive and legislative branch, were senior generals in the previous brutal regime that thumbed its nose at, deceived and manipulated the Burmese people and international community for two decades. The Obama administration appropriately stated that the election was neither free nor fair, and US sanctions carried over and now apply to the new Burmese government, its leaders and its cronies as well.

At the same time, however, the door to dialogue between the US and Burma clearly opened with the Obama administration’s new engagement policy and US officials have received warm receptions in Burma since, especially after the election.

During the year leading up to the election and continuing to date, high-ranking US officials have made many visits to Burma. They have sent a consistent message that it wants Burma to rejoin the international community and will work with the current government and reduce or eliminate sanctions to the extent that concrete democratic and human rights reforms are instituted.

Among the parade of officials delivering this message in person has been US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and, more recently, US Special Representative to Burma Derek Mitchell and US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Michael Poser, all of whom have met with senior Burmese government officials and opposition and ethnic leaders.

The US has already demonstrated that it will loosen its restrictions if doing so will aid the process of communication and reform—the Burmese foreign minister, who previously was subject to a US travel ban, was permitted to visit Washington D.C. and meet with Campbell and other high-ranking state department officials.

But the lifting of US sanctions is another matter, and the Burmese government still has a long way to go if it wishes to see that happen. As Mitchell noted in his press briefing, the US sanctions are US law, so the Obama administrations could only lift sanctions in consultation with the US Congress.