For the first time in a decade, a high ranking official from United States will stop over Myanmar, also known as Burma to meet with the junta top leaders raising hope for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Christians in the reclusive country
Virginia Democrat Senator Jim Webb, chairman of the East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will arrive in Burma on Friday as part of his two-week five nation tour of Asia, his office announced Wednesday.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Yangon, formerly Rangoon told the Associated Press that Webb was expected to spend three days in Myanmar and would visit the new administrative capital of Naypyidaw to meet government leaders.
Sen. Webb will also be the first top U.S. official to meet Myanmar’s top official, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the man in charge of the military regime.
United States has strongly condemned the sentencing of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 months house arrest by Myanmar government. The court has first commuted her to 3 years prison term which was reduced by Than Shwe.
1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi was found guilty on Tuesday of violating her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American John John Yettaw to stay at her home. Mr. Yettaw was sentenced to seven years in prison, four with hard labour. The court also sentenced Suu Kyi's two female house companions, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, to 18 months.
Myanmar, the new name for Burma until the junta change it in 1989 is ranked No.24 by Open Doors 2009 Watch List of the top 50 nations that are worst persecutors of Christians. Myanmar has been under the junta since the infamous military coup in 1962.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization specialized in religious freedom around the world in a secret visit to the Burma-Thailand border in May this year said there is rampant violation of human rights and restriction of religious freedom especially those of the minority Christians.
The report uncovers that forced labour, rape, torture, the destruction of villages, crops and livestock, and the use of human minesweepers at the hands of the military regime are common in states dominated by ethnic minorities like Chin, Kachin, Karen and Karenni – who are majority Christians.
Christians make up about 4 percent of the estimated 55 million populations of which Baptists are the single largest Christian denomination. It is an overwhelmingly Buddhist country with as many as 89 percent adhering to Buddhism.
Many ethnic Christian minorities who form majority of Burmese Christians have fled the country due to rampant human rights violation and religious persecutions in the country.
The visit of Sen. Webb will be watch with anticipation by Aung San Suu Kyi supporters and the persecuted Christians.
- (Photo AP)Protestors wave flags during a demonstration outside the Myanmar Embassy in London, Tuesday Aug. 11, 2009, to protest against the 18-month house arrest of pro-democray leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
- (Photo AP)A child watches, during a demonstration outside the Myanmar Embassy in London, Tuesday Aug. 11, 2009, to protest against the 18-month house arrest of pro-democray leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Yangon, formerly Rangoon told the Associated Press that Webb was expected to spend three days in Myanmar and would visit the new administrative capital of Naypyidaw to meet government leaders.
Sen. Webb will also be the first top U.S. official to meet Myanmar’s top official, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the man in charge of the military regime.
United States has strongly condemned the sentencing of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 months house arrest by Myanmar government. The court has first commuted her to 3 years prison term which was reduced by Than Shwe.
1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi was found guilty on Tuesday of violating her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American John John Yettaw to stay at her home. Mr. Yettaw was sentenced to seven years in prison, four with hard labour. The court also sentenced Suu Kyi's two female house companions, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, to 18 months.
Myanmar, the new name for Burma until the junta change it in 1989 is ranked No.24 by Open Doors 2009 Watch List of the top 50 nations that are worst persecutors of Christians. Myanmar has been under the junta since the infamous military coup in 1962.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization specialized in religious freedom around the world in a secret visit to the Burma-Thailand border in May this year said there is rampant violation of human rights and restriction of religious freedom especially those of the minority Christians.
The report uncovers that forced labour, rape, torture, the destruction of villages, crops and livestock, and the use of human minesweepers at the hands of the military regime are common in states dominated by ethnic minorities like Chin, Kachin, Karen and Karenni – who are majority Christians.
Christians make up about 4 percent of the estimated 55 million populations of which Baptists are the single largest Christian denomination. It is an overwhelmingly Buddhist country with as many as 89 percent adhering to Buddhism.
Many ethnic Christian minorities who form majority of Burmese Christians have fled the country due to rampant human rights violation and religious persecutions in the country.
The visit of Sen. Webb will be watch with anticipation by Aung San Suu Kyi supporters and the persecuted Christians.
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