UNITED NATIONS, September 26, 2010 -- The Obama administration's less critical stand on the military government in Myanmar has been on display of late.
In the run up to the September 27 meeting at the UN of the Group of Friends of the Secretary General on Myanmar, Inner City Press has been asking a range of Obama administration officials what the US position in the meeting, and on Myanmar, will be.
First, Inner City Press asked the Myanmar question to a senior US official who gave a briefing to preview the General Debate. The official, who has spoken about Sudan, Iran and a range of other topics, said they hadn't been briefed on Myanmar.
Then at an on the record session with US State Department spokesman PJ Crowly on September 21, Inner City Press asked about the “meeting of the Group of Friends and the Secretary General on Myanmar – Burma on Monday. With the NLD dissolved, like what’s the U.S. in this UNGA trying to accomplish on Burma?”
PJ Crowley said, “I’ll take the question of our involvement of that particular meeting and have that for you at our next briefing.”
But two days later, still no answer had been provided. After another US briefing, about President Obama's two speeches at the UN, Inner City Press tried again to get the US position.
As transcribed below, the State Department spokesman's presentation to Inner City Press of the US position on Myanmar and the meeting initially seems strong, critical of the military government of Than Shwe and other generals, but ultimately uses the support of China and India for Myanmar as a reason not to push for much.
Some point out that the Obama administration, loudly, does not allow Chinese support for Sudan to stop it from publicly speechifying about Sudan, and being seen to “apply pressure” to the al Bashir government.
Why has the US, as some see it, given up on Burma? Watch this site.
Here is the transcript of what State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told Inner City Press on September 23:
Inner City Press: Do you remember my Myanmar question. Did I miss a briefing of yours?
Crowley: No. There is a friend of Myanmar meeting on Monday. We will be participating. And we'll go through a full range of issues. Obviously our concerns about the human rights climate are well known. We have been encouraging Myanmar to open up political space. Clearly they have failed to do that. We have been encouraging them to have a serious dialogue with the various ethnic groups which compose their population. They haven't done that. The electoral laws that they've passed for the election later this fall we believe will not lead to a credible result. Just taking generals out of uniform and making them civilians is not enough. Part of the challenge with Burma is also working more collaboratively with other countries some of whom do have strong relations with Burma. To settle on a common approach and then see if we can't together demonstrate to Burma there are definitely things that they have to do.
Inner City Press: You mean India as well as China?
Crowley: yes
Inner City Press: There's this call for an international inquiry into war crimes in Burma which was made by the UN rapporteur. France has just said there's going pursue it in this GA. It was never clear to people if the Obama administration joined that call There were some articles where a senior US official said they supported the call but it was never.. I don't know what that meant. Do you know what I'm referring to?
Crowley Yeah I do. I don't know if that's going to be brought up at this meeting or not. Let's wait and see.
If the Obama administration were really behind this call for an inquiry into war crimes in Burma, it seems unlikely that the State Department spokesman would say “let's wait and see” if the issue comes up at the September 27 meeting the US is participating in. Watch this site.
