Huge crowds greeted Barack Obama in Myanmar Monday on the first visit by
a serving US president to the former pariah state, a high-stakes trip aimed at
encouraging "flickers" of democratic progress.
In once unthinkable scenes,
Obama's motorcade passed tens of thousands of flag-waving supporters — some
chanting "America" — lining the streets of Yangon, the backdrop for
several bloody crackdowns on pro-democracy uprisings.
After a red-carpet welcome for
Air Force One, Obama met Myanmar's reformist President Thein Sein, hoping to
embolden the former general to deepen the country's march out of decades of
iron-fisted military rule.
He will later use a major speech
at Yangon University to urge the country not to extinguish "the flickers
of progress" seen to date, the White House said.
"Today, I have come to keep
my promise, and extend the hand of friendship," Obama will say, according
to excerpts of his address. "But this remarkable journey has just begun,
and has much further to go."
The setting for the speech will
be rich in symbolism. The university was the scene of past episodes of
pro-democratic student unrest, including mass demonstrations in 1988 that ended
in a bloody military crackdown.
"Instead of being repressed,
the right of people to assemble together must now be fully respected,"
Obama was to say. "Instead of being stifled, the veil of media censorship
must continue to be lifted."
In a nod to a recent wave of
deadly sectarian violence in western Rakhine state, Obama will urge Myanmar to
"draw on diversity as a strength, not a weakness."
Two major outbreaks of violence
since June between Muslims and Buddhists have left 180 people dead and more
than 110,000 displaced, mostly stateless Rohingya Muslims who have faced
decades of discrimination.
Obama paid a brief visit to
Shwedagon Pagoda, a gold-plated spire encrusted with diamonds and rubies that
is the spiritual center of Burmese Buddhism.
He will later Monday stand
side-by-side with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi at the lakeside villa where
his fellow Nobel laureate languished for years under house arrest.
Now she regularly welcomes
visiting dignitaries and foreign media there.
The White House hopes Obama's
visit to Myanmar will boost Thein Sein's reform drive, which saw Suu Kyi enter
parliament after her rivals in the junta made way for a nominally civilian
government.
The trip is seen as a political
coup for Obama — albeit one with risks — and a major boost for Thein Sein, who
has faced resistance from hardliners within his regime to the rapid political
changes.
Obama has stressed his visit is
not an "endorsement" of the regime but "an acknowledgement"
of the reform process.
In his one-hour meeting with
Obama, Thein Sein recognized "disappointments and obstacles" in
relations with Washington over the past two decades, but stressed his
commitment to improving ties.
Some human rights groups said
Obama should have waited longer to visit, arguing that he could have dangled
the prospect of a trip as leverage to seek more progress such as the release of
scores of remaining political prisoners.
In an effort to burnish its
reform credentials, Myanmar unveiled a raft of new pledges on human rights
ahead of the visit, vowing to review prisoner cases in line with
"international standards" and open its jails to the Red Cross.
The United States on Friday
scrapped a nearly decade-old ban on most imports from the country, after
earlier lifting other sanctions, and officials said Obama would announce a $170
million development aid pledge during his visit.
His trip to Asia, coming less
than a fortnight after his re-election, is the latest manifestation of his
determination to anchor the United States in a dynamic, fast-emerging region he
sees as vital to its future.
Obama fever has swept Myanmar's
biggest city Yangon, with the president's image emblazoned on T-shirts, mugs
and even graffiti-covered walls.
"America is a powerful
country. Obama's visit will bring change to our nation," said 19-year-old
law student Kaung San.
Later on Monday Obama will fly to
Cambodia for a likely tense encounter over human rights with Prime Minister Hun
Sen, ahead of the East Asia Summit, the main institutional focus of his pivot
of US foreign policy to the region.
Agence France-Presse
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