YANGON: British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, set out similar conditions for the lifting of sanctions imposed on the country under the previous military regime at an historic meeting on Friday.
Western countries are cautiously renewing ties with the civilian government in place since last March and Hague, in the former Burma for a two-day visit, has set out four conditions for the easing of sanctions.
Those are the release of hundreds of political detainees, an end to human rights abuses by the army, an effort to resolve ethnic conflicts and the holding of free and fair elections.
Asked at a news conference what she wanted to see before sanctions should be lifted, Suu Kyi referred to what Hague, standing beside her, had said the day before.
“All political prisoners should be released and there should be all efforts made to put an end to all ethnic conflict within our country. Certainly we would want to see free and fair by-elections,” she said.
Hague is the first foreign minister from the former colonial power to visit Myanmar since 1955, before the army took over in what was known as Burma in 1962.The army ran the reclusive country until elections in 2010 that ushered in an army-backed civilian government last March. (Reuters)