WASHINGTON: Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi backed the lifting of sanctions on
Myanmar on Tuesday and reassured China her landmark visit to the United States
was not aimed at containing Beijing's influence.
The Nobel peace laureate, who
spent 15 years under house arrest, thanked the United States for its years of
support but, as she received the first of many accolades on her tour, said that
Myanmar must build democracy itself.
"I do not think that we need
to cling onto sanctions unnecessarily because I want our people to be
responsible for their own destiny and not to depend too much on external
props," Suu Kyi said in her trip's first major appearance.
"In the end, we have to
build our own democracy," she said in a speech in which she appeared
careful not to annoy leaders who have initiated reforms.
The opposition leader had long
supported economic sanctions to pressure the former leaders, the junta.
The United States has been
rolling back restrictions, in July opening Myanmar up to US investment despite
Suu Kyi's earlier unease about US firms doing business with the state-owned oil
and gas company.
"There are very many other
ways in which the United States can help us to achieve our democratic ends and
help us to build up the kind of democratic institutions that we are in such
need of. Sanctions are not the only way," Suu Kyi said.
Suu Kyi, now a member of
parliament, said she believes President Thein Sein is "keen" on
change in the nation formerly known as Burma but cautioned not to look just at
the executive branch as the judiciary was reform's "weakest arm."
"We have passed a first
hurdle, but there are many more hurdles to cross," she said.
On the eve of Suu Kyi's trip, her
party said that authorities freed another 87 political prisoners in what
analysts saw as a new gesture by Thein Sein ahead of his own visit to the
United States next week.
In the award ceremony before the
Asia Society and US Institute of Peace, Suu Kyi took pains to reassure China,
which was the junta's main ally.
Many US observers believe Thein
Sein launched the reforms out of concern over Beijing's overwhelming political
and economic dominance in Myanmar.
While acknowledging it was a
"natural question" whether US interest in Myanmar was spawned by a
desire to contain China, Suu Kyi said her country's warming ties with
Washington should not "in any way be seen as a hostile step towards China."
"For us to put it very
simply, it would be to our advantage for the United States and China to
establish friendly relations. This would help us a great deal," she said.
Suu Kyi, dressed in a red jacket
with three small pink flowers in her hair, began her visit by meeting another
of the world's most prominent women, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who
marveled at her political odyssey.
"It's wonderful to see Suu
Kyi back in Washington as a free and forceful leader of a country opening up to
the world in ways that would have been difficult to imagine even
recently," Clinton said.
But Clinton warned that Myanmar
still had "a lot of work", including freeing remaining political
prisoners and ending alleged military contacts with North Korea.
"The government and the
opposition need to continue to work together to unite the country, heal the
wounds of the past and carry the reforms forward," said Clinton, who paid
a landmark visit to Myanmar in December.
"That is also key to guard
against backsliding, because there are forces that would take the country in
the wrong direction if given the chance," she said.
Clinton also called for Myanmar
to address tensions in Rakhine state, where recent violence between the
Buddhist community and the Rohingya minority left scores dead and displaced
tens of thousands of people.
Suu Kyi, who is widely respected
in Washington, has come under rare criticism from human rights activists, who
have pressed for her to speak out on behalf of the 800,000-strong Rohingya
population, whom Myanmar's government does not consider as citizens.
Suu Kyi said that her party, the
National League for Democracy, wanted to "help the government in any way
possible to bring about peace and harmony," but defended her record.
"We are not in a position to
decide what we do and how we operate because we are not the government. I think
this has to be understood by those who wish the NLD to do more," she said.
Asked separately about the
Rohingya in an interview with Washington-based Radio Free Asia, Suu Kyi said
that the key was to "remove the roots of hatred".
"That is to say you have to
address these issues that make people insecure and that make people
threatened," she told the broadcaster's Burmese service.
-AFP/ac/xq
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