News Digest

U.S. and Myanmar to discuss human rights amidst stalled reforms

The United States is hoping to nudge Myanmar’s quasi-civilian government on stalled reforms during a high-level human rights dialogue, yet expectations are limited as the former pariah nation enters a crucial election year. Top State Department human rights envoy Tom Malinowski’s trip beginning Sunday will coincide with a 10-day visit by U.N. special rapporteur on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee. She arrived this week and examined on Friday the grim conditions faced by 140,000 minority Rohingya Muslims who have been dumped in dirty camps since they were displaced in sectarian violence that began three years ago. During two days of talks in capital Naypyitaw starting Wednesday, U.S. officials will also discuss with Myanmar officials reforms needed to its outdated legal system, the growing problem of land grabs, and recent detentions of peaceful demonstrators and journalists.

Until the U.S. government stops wagging their finger at the Burmese government’s human rights record with one hand while using the other hand to give them economic handouts, the Burmese government can and will continue to ignore complaints about their human rights record.

Jennifer Quigley, president of the U.S. Campaign for Burma, a Washington-based advocacy group

International scrutiny of Myanmar’s rights record is intensifying as it gears up for its first nationwide vote since a repressive junta ceded power in 2011. Optimism that greeted its initial opening and release of hundreds of political prisoners has faded, and skepticism is growing over its transition to democracy. The government’s failure to prevent Buddhist-Muslim clashes, and continued discrimination against the stateless Rohingya — an estimated 100,000 fled the country also known as Burma in the past two years — are the top of a long list of enduring human rights concerns. Changes to a junta-era constitution before elections in late 2015 appear increasingly slim, meaning opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be unable to contest the presidency. The constitution also guarantees the military 25 percent of parliamentary seats.