Singapore,11/11/2009(AP)- The US and Southeast Asian nations will tell Myanmar's military junta to hold credible and fair elections in which pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi can participate, according to a document obtained on Wednesday by The Associated Press.
Similar calls have been issued in the past by both sides, but it carries more political significance and weight this time because of the setting in which it is being made - at the first-ever summit between President Barack Obama and leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar, on Sunday.
A draft copy of a statement be issued at the end of the summit says that Myanmar's 2010 general elections 'must be conducted in a free, fair, inclusive and transparent manner in order to be credible to the international community.'
The United States has signalled a policy shift by seeking to engage Myanmar, also known as Burma, rather than pursue a one-track strategy of sanctions to bring about democratic change in the impoverished country, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.
The generals in charge have steadfastly snubbed the international community, including its friends in Asean, by refusing to free Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.
The sanctions policy enforced by successive US administrations had until now prevented the US from having a deeper interaction with Asean because of Myanmar's membership in it. But that changed when the US sent two top diplomats to Myanmar for talks with the generals last week. On Sunday, Obama will sit at the same table with Myanmar's Prime Minister Gen. Thein Sein at the US-Asean summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit earlier that day.
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