US diplomat ‘troubled’ by election developments in Myanmar as he embarks on 2nd visit

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US envoy ‘troubled’ by Myanmar’s election run-up

YANGON, Myanmar — A top U.S. official said Sunday that Washington is “troubled” by the political environment created by Myanmar’s hard-line military regime ahead of the country’s first elections in 20 years.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia, began his second visit to Myanmar and is due to meet with regime leaders as well as detained Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

“We are troubled by much of what we have seen. We have very real concerns about the election and the environment that has been created,” Campbell told a news conference during a stopover in the Thai capital, Bangkok.

Suu Kyi and other democracy advocates have accused the regime of trying to engineer the upcoming elections to ensure the military retains its half-century-long grip on power.

Relations between Myanmar, also known as Burma, and the U.S. have been strained since its military crushed pro-democracy protests in 1988, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators. Since then, Washington has been Myanmar’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 Myanmar 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 Myanmar in favor of dialogue with the junta, which brooks no dissent and has detained Suu Kyi for 14 of the last 20 years.

Campbell cited recently issued election laws, lack of talks between the military and pro-democracy advocates, political prisoners, status of ethnic minorities and nonproliferation as issues he would bring up during discussions.

The United States has also raised concerns that Myanmar may be trying to acquire nuclear technology, possibly with the help of North Korea.

Washington has said it will maintain political and economic sanctions toward the junta until talks with Myanmar’s generals result in genuine political progress.

Campbell, on his second visit in six months, flew to Myanmar’s administrative capital of Naypyitaw after the Bangkok stop to talk with senior Myanmar officials.

Campbell met with Foreign Minister Nyan Win and was scheduled to hold talks with Information Minister Kyaw San and Science and Technology Minister U Thaung — Myanmar’s former envoy in Washington — who is the point person for the U.S.-Myanmar engagement.

“I welcome the visit of Mr. Kurt Campbell but I don’t really understand what he expected to achieve from the visit,” said Nyan Win, Suu Kyi’s lawyer and a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party, which recently disbanded rather than take part in an election it says will be a sham.

The party ceased its political activities on Friday after declining to register under the country’s new election law. The NLD won Myanmar’s last election in 1990, but the army never allowed it to take power.