MYANMAR/FILE: U.S. senator meets Suu Kyi, Myanmar junta leader

Record ID: 721448

  • Title: MYANMAR/FILE: U.S. senator meets Suu Kyi, Myanmar junta leader
  • Date: 15th August 2009
  • Summary: YANGON, MYANMAR (AUGUST 15, 2009) (REUTERS) NEW LIGHT OF MYANMAR NEWSPAPER WITH HEADLINE READING 'PRIME MINISTER GENERAL THEIN SEIN RECEIVES US SENATOR AND PARTY'
  • Embargoed: 30th August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVACISHP5HSH6L6F11KKN6ZLNFCX
  • Story Text: U.S. Senator Jim Webb announces the release of American John Yettaw, jailed for visiting Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, after he met with Myanmar top military leader Than Shwe and opposition leader Suu Kyi.
    U.S. Senator Jim Webb met Myanmar top military leader Than Shwe and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday (August 15, 2009) and announced the release of an American jailed for visiting the Nobel peace laureate.
    Webb met Than Shwe at the country's remote new capital of Naypyidaw on the second day of his visit and later talked with Suu Kyi for about 45 minutes at a guest house arranged by government officials in Yangon.
    Webb's office later released a statement saying American John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years hard labour by Myanmar's military government, would be released.
    A Myanmar court sentenced Suu Kyi to another 18 months of house arrest for violating a security law after Yettaw swam uninvited across a lake to her home in May. Yettaw was sentenced to prison in a parallel trial on three charges, including immigration offences.
    Webb, chairman of a Senate subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific, is the first member of the US Congress to travel in an official capacity to Myanmar in more than a decade. He has been described as the first senior American official ever to meet Than Shwe.
    Webb's visit comes in the wake of world anger over the conviction of Suu Kyi, a symbol of the movement for democracy in Myanmar, and some Myanmar dissident groups expressed unhappiness about the timing of his visit.
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