Thursday, 03 June 2010 17:31 Thomas Maung Shwe
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Citing growing concern about Burma’s nuclear ties with North Korea, chairman of the US Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs chairman Senator Jim Webb, today postponed his planned trip to Burma.
Webb was supposed to go to Burma this afternoon on a two-day visit as the third leg of an Asian tour that included South Korea and Thailand. According to news reports he was to meet Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein and other junta officials this evening in the capital Nyapyidaw.
Webb said in a statement today that he was concerned by “new allegations regarding the possibility that the Burmese government has been working in conjunction with North Korea in order to develop a nuclear programme.
“From the initial accounts, a defecting officer from the Burmese military claims direct knowledge of such plans, and reportedly has furnished documents to corroborate his claims,” he said.
While Webb cautioned that the defector’s allegation had yet to be substantiated he added that because the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Dr. Kurt Campbell, “recently accused Burma of violating UN Security Council Resolution 1874 with respect to a suspected shipment of arms from North Korea, there are now two unresolved matters related to activities of serious concern between these two countries.
“Until there is further clarification on these matters, I believe it would be unwise and potentially counterproductive for me to visit Burma,” he said.
Resolution 1874 was issued last year and called for strengthening of the arms embargo against North Korea. This was prompted by Pyongyang’s announcement that it had successfully conducted a nuclear test.
Webb’s postponement marks an abrupt change in direction for the senator who had appeared determined to press ahead with the visit amid despite existence of allegations of nuclear co-operation between Burma and North Korea. Last week, the strong advocate for increased economic and political engagement with Burma’s regime appeared on the popular US political news show, MSNBC’s Hardball, and proudly declared he was returning to Burma. He told Hardball host Chris Matthews that in Burma “we see a transition that the United States should be engaged in rather than turning our back to [it] and saying we’re not going to talk to people simply because they politically don’t agree with us.”
Last August Webb became the highest ranking representative of the US government to travel to Burma in more than 10 years. During the trip, Webb had an unprecedented meeting with reclusive junta leader Senior General Than Shwe after which the release of the notorious jailed American tourist John Yettaw was secured. Yettaw was jailed by Burmese authorities in May last year after secretly swimming to Aung San Suu Kyi’s lakeside home where she is under house arrest. His bizzare attempt to “help” the detained democracy leader came two weeks before the terms of her house arrest were set to expire. Unfortunately for Suu Kyi and the people of Burma, Yettaw’s actions resulted in the Nobel Peace laureate supposedly violating those terms, giving the Burmese regime a new excuse to continue her detention.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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