Western states should reach out to Myanmar

Western countries should reach out to Myanmar to encourage the new leadership's reforms, which are exceeding even the most optimistic hopes, the International Crisis Group said Thursday. The think-tank, which focuses on conflict resolution, credited the nominally civilian new president, Thein Sein, with taking steps to mend ties with the opposition and ethnic minorities in the nation formerly known as Burma. "With the political process moving ahead quickly, now is not the time for the West to remain disengaged and skeptical," said Robert Templer, the International Crisis Group's Asia program director. "It is critical to grasp this unique opportunity to support a process that not even the most optimistic observers saw coming," he said in a statement introducing a study named "Myanmar: Major Reform Underway," by the think-tank. The upbeat tone contrasts with the stance of many human rights and exile groups who point to continued abuses and charge that Myanmar's changes have been purely for show, with the military still firmly in control. President Barack Obama's administration has made engagement with Myanmar a key priority and has held a series of talks with the regime, while saying it will not lift sanctions without greater progress on human rights and democracy. The International Crisis Group called for the West to lift sanctions if parliament grants a general amnesty to political prisoners, saying that such a dramatic step was a real possibility with some military legislators in favor. "Failure to do so, or to shift the goalposts by replacing old demands with new ones, would undermine the credibility of these policies and diminish what little leverage the West holds," the report said. The think-tank said that Western nations should at least demonstrate "a less cautious political stance" and encourage international financial institutions' involvement in Myanmar. The regime recently invited an IMF team to advise on currency reform. Myanmar last year held elections which the United States and the opposition said were unfair. The junta handed over to Thein Sein, who took the new civilian position of president after a nearly 50-year military career. Myanmar's rulers last year freed opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace prize winner who spent most of the past two decades under house arrest. She met in August with Thein Sein -- a step the study said showed a true willingness by the new president to break with the junta's legacy. The International Crisis Group also credited Myanmar's rulers with starting talks with ethnic minorities, who have long been in conflict with the army, but it acknowledged that little has changed on the ground. Fighting flared up in far northern Kachin and Shan states earlier this year, causing thousands to flee. The US State Department has said that the army has carried out major human rights violations in long-running conflicts, including using rape as a weapon of war and forcing minorities into labor. Myanmar exile groups have led a campaign to set up a UN inquiry into human rights abuses. The International Crisis Group agreed on the need for accountability, but said the commission was unlikely to become reality and could "cause retrenchment" by Myanmar's leadership. In a recent interview with AFP, Suu Kyi reiterated her support for a UN probe, saying it could help bring reconciliation. "For the sake of future harmony and forgiveness there is a necessity to establish facts," she said. "It's not a tribunal. It has nothing to do with revenge."