Obama ready to ease Myanmar sanctions

The White House announced plans to roll back long-standing sanctions against Myanmar on Wednesday after a meeting between President Barack Obama and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Both leaders stressed that this does not mean letting the Burmese government off the hook for corruption and human rights abuses.

"The United States is now prepared to lift sanctions that we have imposed on Burma for quite some time," Obama said as he sat next to Suu Kyi in the Oval Office, adding that it was "the right thing to do."

The US has already eased some of its broad economic sanctions on Myanmar in light of the transition from military dictatorship to democracy that began five years ago, though it kept several in place that targeted specific military leaders and military-owned companies.

Suu Kyi applauded the decision, inviting American companies and investors to come to her country and "make profits." According to Congressional sources, she also asked Obama to drop an executive order giving Myanmar a "national emergency" status, freeing up restrictions on the country's lucrative jade industry.

The policy change will not affect a ban on weapons trading and will not normalize relations with the Burmese military, which ruled the country with an iron grip for more than four decades.

Suu Kyi addresses Rohingya plight

Suu Kyi said that her top priority now is reconciliation between the countries' various ethnic groups. She has been criticized in the past for not being vocal about the plight of the Rohingya Muslim minority, which has long been denied citizenship in the Buddhist-majority nation.

"We are sincere in trying to bring together the different communities," Suu Kyi told the press, saying that citizenship should be extended to everyone who is entitled to it.

After the meeting between the two leaders, White House spokesman Josh Earnest pushed back against allegations that the US would lose crucial leverage to press the Burmese government on human rights abuses if it removed the sanctions.

"If anything, we're enhancing it," said Earnest, arguing that greater engagement with Myanmar would enable the US to encourage further change.

es/kl (AP, Reuters)