Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to cooperate with the ruling junta in order to get the West to lift economic sanctions imposed on the country, as long as three conditions are met, a key spokesman said Friday. "Daw (Madame) Aung San Suu Kyi has written a letter to Senior General Than Shwe regarding the sanctions issue," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi. Than Shwe is Myanmar's current military strongman.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, met with Nyan Win at her house-cum-prison in Yangon for an hour Friday to spell out her views on economic sanctions following indications that the administration of US President Barack Obama is seeking to "engage" with the military regime.
Suu Kyi has indicated that she is not opposed to Western sanctions against Myanmar, one of her major bargaining chips against the regime, be lifted, as long as there is "engagement" on both sides.
In her letter to Than Shwe, Suu Kyi said it was necessary to discuss three points - which countries have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar, the impact of the sanctions and why they were imposed.
Economic sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar since 1988, when the military brutally cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations, leaving an estimated 3,000 people dead.
The US and European Union stepped up their sanctions over the years as the junta first refused to acknowledge Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) victory at the 1990 polls and then proceeded to arrest critics and squash all forms of dissent.
Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest, where she remains today.
Earlier this year, junta chief Than Shwe hinted that he would be willing to open a political dialogue with Suu Kyi if she agreed to cooperate in making the West lift the sanctions.
To date, Than Shwe has refused to talk to Suu Kyi. Discussing why the sanctions have been imposed on Myanmar, would amount to a discussion of NLD's demands.
Most western nations have demanded that Than Shwe release Suu Kyi and some 2,000 other political prisoners as a first step towards democratization in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962. Suu Kyi and the NLD demand the same thing.
On Wednesday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told journalists on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the US administration decided on a double-pronged approach of both engagement and continued sanctions.
"We believe that sanctions remain important as part of our policy, but by themselves, they have not produced the results that had been hoped for on behalf of the people of Burma," Clinton s
