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YANGON : Two senior US envoys travelling to military-ruled Myanmar this week will meet detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi but are unlikely to see the military chief, an official said on Sunday.
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell and his deputy Scot Marciel are planning the visit in the latest move by President Barack Obama's administration to engage the regime.
They will go to the remote administrative capital of Naypyidaw on Tuesday and meet Prime Minister Thein Sein, a Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
This is the highest level government member the pair will meet, the official said, suggesting that they will not be granted talks with regime leader Than Shwe.
They will travel to Yangon on Wednesday to meet Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) before departing the country, the official added.
The visit is a follow-up to discussions in New York in September between US and Myanmar officials, which marked the highest-level American contact with the regime in nearly a decade.
The Obama administration shifted its policy because its longstanding approach of isolating Myanmar had failed to bear fruit, but said it would not ease sanctions without progress on democracy and human rights.
In August, Than Shwe held an unprecedented meeting with a visiting US senator, Jim Webb, a leading advocate of engaging the military government.
But if, as the official's comments suggest, Than Shwe does not want to meet the US delegation this week, he may leave the capital during their visit, said activist and scholar Win Min in northern Thailand.
"He doesn't want to make significant concessions even though he wants to get the US to lift sanctions," Win Min said, noting that the leader avoided a request to meet UN special envoy Razali Ismail in 2003 by visiting the west coast and leaving the then premier to see the envoy.
A State Department official, Stephen Blake, quietly visited Myanmar in March to hold talks with both military government members and the opposition. It was the first trip by a US envoy to the country in more than seven years.
Campbell told a congressional panel last month that the dialogue would "supplement rather than replace" the sanctions regime. - AFP/ms
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