Myanmar hopes that new US President Barack Obama will change Washington’s tough policy towards its military regime and end the “misunderstandings” of the past, a senior official said yesterday.
The Myanmar government and state media have made no official comment on Obama’s inauguration, but the official said on condition of anonymity that the country was looking to the US leader to show his “good intentions.”
Former US president George W. Bush’s administration strengthened decade-old sanctions against Myanmar while his wife Laura was an outspoken critic of the country’s ruling junta.
“Our two countries’ relations have had some misunderstandings in the past with the Bush administration. Mr Obama needs to study our country’s real situation so that he can change policy,” the Myanmar official said.
“There have been many mistakes in the past [in relations between the countries]. We have had misunderstandings. But now we are expecting good intentions,” he said.
The Myanmar official accused Bush of making “one-sided” decisions.
The Bush administration “made decisions one-sidedly without knowing the real situation on the ground. We hope that US foreign policy will change for the world,” he said.
State-owned daily newspapers carried no comment on the swearing-in of Obama and there were only a few reports in the papers’ foreign news sections.
But people in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, watched the inauguration ceremony on satellite TV overnight.
“I have never seen anything like this ceremony in my life,” Aye Aye, 28, a university student said after staying up until late to see the event.
“There were so many people and it was very surprising and also interesting. I do not understand politics, I just watched because of my interest in the inauguration of the new president,” she said.
Myanmar’s top leader, Senior General Than Shwe, sent a formal diplomatic note of congratulation to Obama in November after he was elected.
Myanmar’s opposition pro-party has also cautiously welcomed the election of Obama, but said time would tell if he could help open up the military-run country.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and is under economic sanctions from the US and Europe over rights abuses and the detention of pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
A string of rape and assault allegations against the son of Norway’s future queen have plunged the royal family into its “biggest scandal” ever, wrapping up an annus horribilis for the monarchy. The legal troubles surrounding Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son born of a relationship before Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s marriage to Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon, have dominated the Scandinavian country’s headlines since August. The tall strapping blond with a “bad boy” look — often photographed in tuxedos, slicked back hair, earrings and tattoos — was arrested in Oslo on Aug. 4 suspected of assaulting his girlfriend the previous night. A photograph
‘GOOD POLITICS’: He is a ‘pragmatic radical’ and has moderated his rhetoric since the height of his radicalism in 2014, a lecturer in contemporary Islam said Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the leader of the Islamist alliance that spearheaded an offensive that rebels say brought down Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and ended five decades of Baath Party rule in Syria. Al-Jolani heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which is rooted in Syria’s branch of al-Qaeda. He is a former extremist who adopted a more moderate posture in order to achieve his goals. Yesterday, as the rebels entered Damascus, he ordered all military forces in the capital not to approach public institutions. Last week, he said the objective of his offensive, which saw city after city fall from government control, was to
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
RSS