U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Burma, saying he made the trip to the once pariah nation to acknowledge that it has opened the door to democratic reforms after five decades of harsh military rule.
Obama arrived in Rangoon by plane from Bangkok after a two-day visit to America's oldest ally Thailand.
Tens of thousands of people, many of them waving American flags, lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the U.S. leader as his motorcade sped through Rangoon, Burma's commercial capital.
Obama held talks with reformist President Thein Sein at parliament building in Rangoon and later with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her lakeside villa, where she had spent years under house arrest during the military junta rule.
"Today, I have come to keep my promise, and extend the hand of friendship," Obama said, according to excerpts of his speech released before his arrival in Rangoon.
"The flickers of progress that we have seen must not be extinguished. They must become a shining North Star for all this nation's people," he said.
Obama prodded the Thein Sein administration to step up reforms.
“That is how you must reach for the future you deserve,” Obama said in the prepared remarks, “a future where a single prisoner of conscience is one too many and the law is stronger than any leader, where no child is made to be a soldier and no woman is exploited, where national security is strengthened by a military that serves under civilians and a constitution guarantees that only those who are elected by the people may govern.”
Prisoners released
President Barack Obama (L) being greeted by Aung San Suu Kyi (R) at her residence in Rangoon, Nov. 19, 2012.
On Sunday, Burmese state television said 66 more prisoners would be released on Monday, bringing to 518 the number released over the past week.
The previous batch did not include political prisoners, according to rights groups, but a senior prison department official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters news agency that Myint Aye, a prominent human rights activist, would be among those freed on Monday.
On the eve of Obama's visit, Burma also pledged to agree to adopt new nuclear safeguards that allow inspections of suspected clandestine atomic sites.
The pledge came hours after the White House said Burma has taken "positive steps" to reduce its military relationship with North Korea, which is facing international sanctions for its illicit nuclear program.
Thein Sein also assured the international community on Friday that his government will consider resolving contentious rights issues facing the Muslim Rohingya, including the possibility of providing them citizenship following deadly communal violence between the stateless group and Rakhine Buddhists in western Rakhine state.
It was the clearest indication yet that the government is moving to address the plight of the Rohingyas, whom the United Nations considers among the world's most persecuted minorities.
Rights groups say the Rohingyas bore the brunt of the violence, in which Rakhines were also among those killed and made homeless..
Rangoon
During his six-hour visit, Obama will confine himself to Rangoon, Burma's biggest commercial city, and will not set foot on Naypyidaw, the country's administrative capital widely viewed as the military's power base and to which the U.S. and many Western embassies have refused to move their offices.
On the eve of his Burma trip, while speaking in Thailand, Obama rejected suggestions by rights groups that he was going to Rangoon to offer his "endorsement" of the Burmese government or that his trip was premature.
"This is an acknowledgment that there is a process underway inside that country that even a year and a half, two years ago, nobody foresaw," Obama told reporters in Thailand on Sunday.
He said Burma was moving "in a better direction" under Thein Sein, who has spearheaded political and economic reforms since taking office in March 2011 after landmark elections the year before.
"I don't think anybody is under the illusion that Burma's arrived, that they're where they need to be," Obama said, on his first trip abroad since winning a second term in office earlier this month.
"On the other hand, if we waited to engage until they had achieved a perfect democracy, my suspicion is we'd be waiting an awful long time," he said.
Import ban scrapped
Before Obama left Washington on Saturday, the United States scrapped a nearly decade-old ban on most imports from Burma, opening up to products from the country with the exception of gems, a sector seen as a major driver of corruption and violence.
The move is "intended to support the Burmese government's ongoing reform efforts and to encourage further change, as well as to offer new opportunities for Burmese and American businesses," a statement from the State and Treasury departments said.
Obama will fly later Monday to Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh to attend the 18-nation East Asia Summit that will also be participated in by 10 leaders of Southeast Asia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Australia and New Zealand.
Reported by RFA's Burmese service. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
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