Kuwait Times

Published Date: August 17, 2009

WASHINGTON: Myanmar's release of a US citizen has given Senator Jim Webb ammunition in his bid to engage the military-run nation, but activists are livid at what they see as a propaganda coup for the junta. Webb flew out of Myanmar yesterday with John Yettaw, a mentally troubled American who had been sentenced to seven years in prison for swimming uninvited to the lakeside home of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

The senator became the first US official to speak with the junta's reclusive leader, Than Shwe. He also met Aung San Suu Kyi without winning freedom of the Nobel laureate, who was handed a fresh sentence over Yettaw's bizarre stunt. Webb, a gruff Vietnam veteran once tipped as a running mate to President Barack Obama, thanked the military regime and hoped the release would "begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building." A former secretary of the navy and journalist, Webb has long argued th
at the US and European approach of punishing Myanmar, also known as Burma, has failed.

Aung Din, executive director of the US Campaign for Burma advocacy group, voiced outrage over Webb's trip, saying that the "real victims" of Yettaw's behavior-Aung San Suu Kyi and her two female aides-were still detained. Aung Din, a former political prisoner who helped lead 1988 protests against the regime, said the junta "gave an award" to Webb for his opposition to sanctions. "This will surely make a negative impression among the people of Burma," Aung Din said. "They will think that Americans are easy
to satisfy with the dictators when they get their citizens back," he said.

Webb, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Asia, often draws a parallel with Vietnam, saying that US investment and engagement helped pull the communist state into the international mainstream. Webb's views go against the grain in the US Congress, which has voted overwhelmingly in support of trade restrictions against Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest, also backs sanctions.

But the Obama administration, particularly Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has indicated it is cool to using sanctions as a diplomatic tool, not only against Myanmar but other nations such as Sudan. "I think there's a lot of pressure on Congress to choose constructive engagement over sanctions when they can," said John Dale, an expert on Myanmar at George Mason University. "Right now Webb is a minority in his position, but then again if he pulls off a minor success like this or at least can represent i
t that way, then he's able to pull fence-sitters to his side," Dale said.

Grilled by Webb in Congress, Kurt Campbell, the new assistant secretary of state for Asia, said in June the administration had been leaning to reach out to Myanmar-as it has to US adversaries such as Iran and Cuba-but momentum stopped after the junta took action against Aung San Suu Kyi. Dale said the junta's main goal was to "run the clock" until elections it called next year, which will be the country's first in two decades. The United States has warned the vote will be a sham if the opposition does not
take part.

Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, said that Yettaw already served his purpose for the junta-giving a pretext to lock up Aung San Suu Kyi ahead of the elections. Lohman said the junta achieved even more by handing him over to Webb-producing media coverage of the isolated regime with a US official. "They definitely got the better side of the bargain," Lohman said.

The release comes less than two weeks after former president Bill Clinton flew to another reclusive nation, North Korea, and brought back two journalists convicted of illegal entry. Lohman warned that without more direction from the Obama administration, its foreign policy risked being guided by such "consular work." "Webb is mostly a lone wolf, but in the absence of a clear policy direction from the White House, he can have some influence," Lohman said. - AFP