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| Myanmar President Thein Sein, left, shakes hands with Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), during their meeting at the presidential house in Naypyitaw, Myanmar on Monday. (AP Photo/ United Nations Population Fund) |
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Washington.
The Obama administration took another step Wednesday in unraveling tough US
sanctions against Myanmar by waiving a visa ban to promote engagement with its
reformist government.
The White
House announced the step ahead of a visit next month to New York by President
Thein Sein to the UN General Assembly.
Spokeswoman
Caitlin Hayden said it is not a blanket lifting of the ban, and the US will
still screen Myanmar officials for evidence of complicity in gross human rights
abuses.
President
Barack Obama delegated authority to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
to waive the ban for “certain individuals.” Under 2008 legislation, the ban
covers officials of the former ruling junta, the military and those who lend it
financial support. Immediate family members of such individuals are also
banned.
Hayden said
that by engaging Thein Sein and select Myanmar ministers and deputy ministers,
“we can build trust, create opportunities to press for further reform, and give
key reformers a better understanding of democracy and US policy.”
In recent
months, the US has restored full diplomatic relations and suspended investment
sanctions to reward the country also known as Burma for shifting from five
decades of authoritarian rule. It has already allowed some US visits by
officials.
The US,
however, has left in place an import ban and remains concerned over political
prisoners, ethnic conflict, and Myanmar’s ties with North Korea.
Thein
Sein’s upcoming visit to the US will coincide with one by democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, who will meet administration and congressional leaders and receive
the Congressional Gold Medal, the legislature’s highest civilian honor.
In
Myanmar’s latest effort to ease state control, it announced Tuesday that it is
cutting about a third of the names from a blacklist that has restricted more
than 6,000 people — both foreigners and Burmese — from traveling to and from
the country.
But the US
Campaign for Burma, a Washington-based activist group, complained Wednesday
that Myanmar authorities have yet to grant passports to 15 veteran student activist
leaders and many former political prisoners.
“Their
application for passports is delayed while many government officials, ruling
party members, and cronies are freely traveling all over the world including
the US and Europe,” said the group’s executive director, Aung Din.
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