US senator meets Myanmar's democracy leader

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YANGON, Myanmar – U.S. Senator Jim Webb met with Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, the first foreign official allowed to see her since she was sentenced to 18 months of detention by the ruling junta, witnesses said.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate was driven from her residence to a nearby government guest house for a 40-minute meeting with Webb after which reporters saw her taken back to her home by car.

Webb's visit, the first by a member of the U.S. Congress in more than a decade, has drawn criticism from activists who say it confers legitimacy on a brutal regime, but the Obama administration gave the Virginia Democrat its blessing.
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The green light to meet with Suu Kyi may have been given to mitigate the torrent of international criticism against Myanmar following her trial. In July, authorities barred U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from meeting with Suu Kyi during a two-day visit.

Webb arrived in Myanmar's capital of Naypyitaw on Friday, just days after the world condemned the ruling generals for sentencing Suu Kyi to more house arrest. Earlier, he was reportedly on his way to see an American man — sentenced to seven years in prison in the same trial — but that visit was apparently canceled or postponed.

Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention. Her latest sentence came after she and the American, John Yettaw, were convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest when he secretly swam to her house and spent two days there.

Speculation has swirled in Yangon that authorities might hand Yettaw to Webb for deportation to the United States. But Yettaw's lawyer said it was very unlikely, although he hoped the ailing American might be deported at a later date.

On Saturday, he flew to Yangon after an apparent meeting with the junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, his first with a senior U.S. official. The meeting has not been officially confirmed.

The visit — particularly meetings with senior officials and Suu Kyi — was unusual because of the poor state of relations between Myanmar, also known as Burma, and the U.S. Many critics said it was particularly bad timing for outreach — only days after the junta flouted international appeals that Suu Kyi be cleared of the latest charges.

While Washington has traditionally been Myanmar's strongest critic, applying political and economic sanctions against the junta, President Barack Obama's new ambassador for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, recently said the administration is interested in easing its policy of isolation. Webb, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, has suggested that "affirmative engagement" would bring the most change to Myanmar, concerning those who think a hard line is the best approach.

In a letter to Webb, dissident groups warned the junta would use the senator's trip for its own ends.

"We are concerned that the military regime will manipulate and exploit your visit and propagandize that you endorse their treatment on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,100 political prisoners, their human rights abuses on the people of Burma, and their systematic, widespread and ongoing attack against the ethnic minorities," the letter said. Daw is a term of respect for older women in Myanmar.

Possibly reflecting a similar wariness, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said the party "has no interest in Jim Webb because he is not known to have any interest in Myanmar affairs." He did not elaborate.

Official media, however, appeared to herald Webb's arrival. The nightly broadcast led with the visit, reporting that the senator met with Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein on Friday, and returned to the subject several times during the night.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The junta called elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results when Suu Kyi's party won overwhelmingly.
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Associated Press writer Foster Klug contributed to this report from Washington.

from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090815/ap_on_re_as/as_myanmar_us_senator;_ylt=AgDDPNGNEtSbukJp4IIKjPNvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJtZzF0YWM4BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwODE1L2FzX215YW5tYXJfdXNfc2VuYXRvcgRjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzcEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDdXNzZW5hdG9ybWVl