David Cameron to visit Burma

 Prime minister expected to visit Burma this week to hold talks with the government and meet Aung San Suu Kyi

 
By, Patrick Wintour, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 10 April 2012    ...



David Cameron is to become the first western head of government to visit Burma since the military handed power to a civilian government. Photograph: Carl Court/PA

David Cameron is expected this week to become the first western head of government to visit Burma since the military handed power to a nominally civilian government. He will hold talks with the government and meet Nobel prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Cameron will also meet President Thein Sein in the capital, Naypyidaw.

The trip was confirmed by government officials in Burma, and reported by news agencies.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the first western leader to visit last December. Both the foreign secretary William Hague and the international development secretary Andrew Mitchell have visited the country in recent months. Hague was the first British foreign secretary to visit the country for 55 years, and at the time urged the country to do more to release political prisoners, if further sanctions are to be lifted.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent 15 of the past 22 years locked up by the former junta, won a seat in parliament for the first time in 1 April elections that were largely praised by the west as a step towards democracy.

Her National League for Democracy party secured 43 of the 44 seats it contested, becoming the main opposition force in a national parliament dominated by the military and its political allies.

She is due to take her seat on April 23, but she has not yet called for all sanctions to be lifted saying further signs of progress towards a true democracy are needed.

While some nations have argued for all sanctions to be removed, Britain, Burma's former colonial ruler, favours a step-by-step process of lifting sanctions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/10/david-cameron-visit-burma