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U.S. "troubled" by Myanmar election plans
Reuters - Sunday, May 9
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By Alex Richardson
BANGKOK - A senior U.S. diplomat said on Sunday the United States was concerned by Myanmar's preparations for a long-awaited election but would continue its attempts at deeper engagement with the country's military rulers.
Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, Washington's top official for East Asia and the Pacific, was travelling to the former Burma later on Sunday to meet government officials and key figures including detained Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
"I will say we are troubled by much of what we have seen and we have very real concerns about the election laws and the environment that has been created," Campbell told a news conference in Bangkok.
"We will be looking to clarify some questions and also to urge the government to broaden its overall approach."
The election, on an as yet unspecified date this year, has been dismissed by many analysts as a sham after nearly five decades of army rule in the strategically located but isolated country, which is rich in resources such as gas, timber and gems.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy , which won Myanmar's last election in 1990 in a landslide ignored by the junta, was effectively disbanded on Friday after choosing not to re-register as a party for a poll it says is unjust and unfair.
Campbell, who was the most senior U.S. official to visit Myanmar in 14 years when he travelled to the country in November, declined to give details of all the parties he would meet this time.
But he indicated he would be talking to pro-junta parties and might also see members of a breakaway NLD faction that hopes to contest the election as a new political entity.
"We will be meeting with elements of the NLD, we will be meeting with other groups as well," he said.
"I think our desire is to have the broadest possible set of discussions with political parties inside the country and that will include parties who are more closely associated with the government as well."
The Obama administration decided in September to pursue deeper engagement with Myanmar to try to spur democratic reforms, although it has no plans to lift sanctions on the country.
The United States has long voiced concerns over Myanmar's rights record, and is also worried that the ruling generals are seeking to acquire nuclear technology from North Korea.
"We also have specific concerns associated with the status of political prisoners, the status of ethnic groups inside the country and of course we have some larger proliferation concerns as well. In some of these areas we are disappointed with the results we've seen to date," said Campbell.
"And so our primary goal is to establish more consequential discussions with the government on a range of issues and hear directly from them their plans and objectives over the course of the next few years politically and in terms of foreign policy."
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