Open Thread: Hillary’s Historic Visit to Myanmar

Hillary arriving in Myanmar yesterday

Today’s Guardian UK reports on Hillary’s first in-person meeting with Nobel Prize winning activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese pro-democracy campaigner and Nobel prize winner, had dinner with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton on Thursday night in a diplomatic residence in the port city of Rangoon.

The extraordinary meeting came at the end of Clinton’s first full day of her historic trip to the isolated south Asian state, the first by a top-ranking American official for more than 50 years.

[….]

Aung San Suu Kyi

Clinton’s trip comes after changes in Burma that have astonished many observers. Aung San Suu Kyi has been freed after more than 20 years of house arrest and prison, and tentative moves have been made to reduce censorship and create new laws permitting limited political demonstrations.

Last year saw parliamentary elections which, despite being rigged to give the pro-regime party a huge majority, were nonetheless welcomed by observers.

Though the military dominates most institutions and much of the economy, many senior figures believe Burma, currently under US and European Union sanctions, needs to reintegrate the international community, analysts say.

Here’s a video about the visit, uploaded to You Tube by Reuters early this morning: