SALON

Friday, Jan 6, 2012 11:27 AM UTC

Britain’s Hague Says Myanmar Needs More Reforms

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Britain's Hague Says Myanmar Needs More ReformsBritish Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, and Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi walk on the lawn to a news conference after their meeting at the latter's residence in Yangon, Myanmar Friday, Jan. 6, 2012. Hague was on a two-day visit to Myanmar since Thursday. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)(Credit: AP)

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — British Foreign Secretary William Hague cautioned Friday while visiting Myanmar that foreign supporters of democracy must not slacken pressure on its military-backed government while reforms remain incomplete.

Hague is the first British foreign secretary to visit Myanmar in more than 50 years, following counterparts including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton late last year, as nations try to nuture ties to the country and encourage its reforms.

Hague said after a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the country’s democracy movement, that while reforms undertaken by elected President Thein Sein raise hopes that democracy and freedom are within reach, the measures taken so far are insufficient.

“I hope we are at a stage where we can say that a long-held dream now has a chance of being realized,” he said, but added much more must be done.

Britain and other nations instituted political and economic sanctions against Myanmar — also called Burma — because of repression by the previous military regime, and these pressures should not yet be lifted while political prisoners are still being held, Hague said.

Thein Sein’s government, which came to power last year after elections in 2010, has released about 200 political prisoners, legalized labor unions and eased some restrictions on freedom of expression. However, it still holds some 600 to 1,700 political activists, some on long prison sentences, and critics fear that liberalization and conducted dialogue with Suu Kyi’s democracy movement are minimal gestures aimed at appeasement.

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party, however, have virtually endorsed the reform process by rejoining mainstream electoral politics after years of resistance to military rule.

The NLD won 1990 elections but the ruling junta detained Suu Kyi and other NLD figures for years and refused to allow parliament to be seated. Myanmar did not hold another election until November 2010, and the rules set by the military perpetuated its dominance in parliament and government. The NLD boycotted that election and was delisted as a result, but it was reinstated by the government Thursday, in time to run candidates in a by-election on April 1.

Hague, who met Thursday with Thein Sein, said he supported the president’s reform efforts so far, but said much more needs to be done.

“It is not possible to say a country is free and democratic while people are still in prison on grounds of their political beliefs,” he said, adding that such prisoners must be released before Britain supports a lifting of European Union restrictions against Myanmar.

Other areas of Britain’s concern are improved humanitarian access to areas of ethnic conflict — the government is currently engaged in a brutal fight with the Kachin ethnic minority in the country’s remote north — and openly free and fair by-elections.

“The risk is that we assume it’s all done and forget that this is only part way through,” Hague said, adding, “It’s very important that we do not relax the pressure prematurely.”

Suu Kyi, speaking alongside Hague after their meeting, said he reflected her movement’s themes and aspirations exactly.

“In order to realize our dreams we have to work very hard indeed,” she said, adding “We will work very hard and we are sure our friends will be with us at our side and together we will succeed in fulfilling the dreams of the people of Burma.”

More Grant Peck.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations