ahlam1399
09-15-2016, 01:12 AM
WASHINGTON: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi called on Wednesday for the lifting of eco**mic sanctions against her country and President Barack Obama, in their first White House meeting since she became her country's leader, said the United States was ready to do so.
"It is the right thing to do in order to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government," Obama said with Suu Kyi sitting next to him in the Oval ******.
The trip by Suu Kyi, who like Obama is a **bel Peace Prize laureate, capped a decades-long journey from political prisoner to national leader after her party won a sweeping electoral victory last year.
With Suu Kyi ** longer an opposition figure, the United States has been weighing a further easing of sanctions against Myanmar, formerly k**wn as Burma, as Obama looks to **rmalize relations with a country Washington shunned when it was ruled by a military junta.
"We think that the time has **w come to remove all the sanctions that hurt us eco**mically," Suu Kyi said, **ting that the U.S. Congress had supported her country by backing sanctions in the past to put pressure for democratic reforms.
As Suu Kyi arrived for the meeting, the White House issued a statement saying it would reinstate Myanmar to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which provides duty-free treatment for goods from poor and developing countries.
Myanmar was ******* from GSP benefits in 1989 following pro-democracy uprisings a year earlier that were brutally suppressed by the ruling military junta. Myanmar will be back in the program on **v. 13, U.S. officials said.
Reinstating those benefits, combined with the lifting of sanctions, "will give the United States, our businesses, our **n-profit institutions greater incentive to invest and participate in what we hope will be an increasingly democratic and prosperous partner for us in the region," Obama said.
The United States eased some sanctions against Myanmar earlier this year to support political reform but maintained most of its eco**mic restrictions with an eye toward penalizing those it views as hampering the democratically elected government.
With Suu Kyi in Washington, officials in Myanmar said the government there was making a push to overhaul rules on new foreign investment this week.
New investment approvals have fallen since Suu Kyi took power in April and some businesses and investors have criticized her for failing to prioritize the eco**my.
'INCREMENTAL PROGRESS'
A group of 46 **n-governmental organizations circulated a letter they wrote to Obama on Monday expressing concern about easing sanctions on Myanmar while human rights abuses by the military and against Rohingya Muslims persisted.
"To lift sanctions prior to tangible change for suffering communities would be a disservice to those vulnerable peoples who deserve international protection," it said.
Suu Kyi has been criticized by some rights groups for **t doing e**ugh to address the plight of the Rohingya. Some 125,000 Rohingya remain in temporary camps in the country's Western Rakhine State following violence in 2012.
Under the country's citizenship law, the Rohingya are **t recognised as one of the country's 135 official ethnic groups and are stateless. They are seen as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and deeply disliked by many in Myanmar, particularly Rakhine Buddhists.
"We want to make sure that everybody who is entitled to citizenship is accorded citizenship as quickly and as fairly as possible. This is what we are trying to do in Rakhine," Suu Kyi said.
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized what he described as Suu Kyi's "dismissive" reaction to concerns he had raised about her country's record on human trafficking.
"After witnessing her lack of regard for Burma's dismal track record on this issue, I plan to pay very close attention to her government's efforts to prevent in**cent human beings from being trafficked and sold into forced labour and *** slavery," Corker said in a statement released to Reuters after a breakfast meeting with Suu Kyi and Vice President Joe Biden.
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"It is the right thing to do in order to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government," Obama said with Suu Kyi sitting next to him in the Oval ******.
The trip by Suu Kyi, who like Obama is a **bel Peace Prize laureate, capped a decades-long journey from political prisoner to national leader after her party won a sweeping electoral victory last year.
With Suu Kyi ** longer an opposition figure, the United States has been weighing a further easing of sanctions against Myanmar, formerly k**wn as Burma, as Obama looks to **rmalize relations with a country Washington shunned when it was ruled by a military junta.
"We think that the time has **w come to remove all the sanctions that hurt us eco**mically," Suu Kyi said, **ting that the U.S. Congress had supported her country by backing sanctions in the past to put pressure for democratic reforms.
As Suu Kyi arrived for the meeting, the White House issued a statement saying it would reinstate Myanmar to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which provides duty-free treatment for goods from poor and developing countries.
Myanmar was ******* from GSP benefits in 1989 following pro-democracy uprisings a year earlier that were brutally suppressed by the ruling military junta. Myanmar will be back in the program on **v. 13, U.S. officials said.
Reinstating those benefits, combined with the lifting of sanctions, "will give the United States, our businesses, our **n-profit institutions greater incentive to invest and participate in what we hope will be an increasingly democratic and prosperous partner for us in the region," Obama said.
The United States eased some sanctions against Myanmar earlier this year to support political reform but maintained most of its eco**mic restrictions with an eye toward penalizing those it views as hampering the democratically elected government.
With Suu Kyi in Washington, officials in Myanmar said the government there was making a push to overhaul rules on new foreign investment this week.
New investment approvals have fallen since Suu Kyi took power in April and some businesses and investors have criticized her for failing to prioritize the eco**my.
'INCREMENTAL PROGRESS'
A group of 46 **n-governmental organizations circulated a letter they wrote to Obama on Monday expressing concern about easing sanctions on Myanmar while human rights abuses by the military and against Rohingya Muslims persisted.
"To lift sanctions prior to tangible change for suffering communities would be a disservice to those vulnerable peoples who deserve international protection," it said.
Suu Kyi has been criticized by some rights groups for **t doing e**ugh to address the plight of the Rohingya. Some 125,000 Rohingya remain in temporary camps in the country's Western Rakhine State following violence in 2012.
Under the country's citizenship law, the Rohingya are **t recognised as one of the country's 135 official ethnic groups and are stateless. They are seen as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh and deeply disliked by many in Myanmar, particularly Rakhine Buddhists.
"We want to make sure that everybody who is entitled to citizenship is accorded citizenship as quickly and as fairly as possible. This is what we are trying to do in Rakhine," Suu Kyi said.
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the influential Senate Foreign Relations Committee, criticized what he described as Suu Kyi's "dismissive" reaction to concerns he had raised about her country's record on human trafficking.
"After witnessing her lack of regard for Burma's dismal track record on this issue, I plan to pay very close attention to her government's efforts to prevent in**cent human beings from being trafficked and sold into forced labour and *** slavery," Corker said in a statement released to Reuters after a breakfast meeting with Suu Kyi and Vice President Joe Biden.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/YEor/~4/XJ9EVXEzVEI
أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/YEor/~3/XJ9EVXEzVEI/150086-Obama-says-US-ready-to-lift-Myanmar-sanctions-after-Suu-Kyis-visit)