Encouraging Continued Reform in Burma

Doug Bandow Burmese President Thein Sein will be visiting Washington next week. It’s the first trip by a Burmese head of state in nearly five decades and reflects the reform winds blowing through Naypyitaw. Burma, or Myanmar, languished under brutal military rule for a half century before the armed forces moved into the background and created a nominal civilian government. Thein Sein is a former general and the retired junta leaders undoubtedly remain influential, though their exact role remains hidden. Nevertheless, Burma has come far in the last couple of years. Many political prisoners have been released. Many restrictions over the media have been lifted. Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been freed from house arrest and elected to parliament. Fighting has ceased against many separatist ethnic groups. Naypyitaw has distanced itself from its former patron, China. There’s still more to be done. Conflict with the ethnic Kachin continues to ravage parts of Burma, while Buddhist mobs have been conducting a different form of war against Muslim Burmese. Nor is it certain that the military is prepared to fully yield power in 2015, when the next election is scheduled. Indeed, Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, recently issued a report citing the need for additional reforms, which I discussed in a recent article in National Interest online. Nevertheless, after spending years vying with North Korea for distinction as the world&...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs