Fearing Harm to Myanmar Ties, Thailand Limits Visiting Opposition Leader
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: June 2, 2012
MAE LA, Thailand — Amid growing concerns here that the six-day visit of Myanmar’s opposition leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
might damage relations with Myanmar’s government, Thai officials tried
to rein her in on Saturday at a refugee camp on the Thai border.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Refugees in Mae La waited for hours for the arrival of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday.
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Although the Thai government accepted her last-minute request to visit
the camp, which has about 50,000 people living on the border between
Thailand and Myanmar, formerly Burma, Thai officials declined her
request for a public address system, barred her from meeting the leaders
of ethnic minority groups and tried, without success, to keep the
international news media away, local officials here said.
“The Foreign Ministry asked us to keep her visit low-key,” said Suriya
Prasatbuntitya, the governor of Tak Province, where the camp is located.
“Put simply, they didn’t want her trip to become news because they
don’t want this to affect our relationship with Burma.”
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, recently elected to Parliament, began a new phase
in her political career last week, leaving Myanmar for the first time in
24 years. She plans to travel to Britain, France, Ireland, Norway and
Switzerland this month, expanding her role as a global envoy for freedom
and democracy.
But her first trip abroad since becoming a public figure has been
challenging. She has delighted crowds here but rankled government
officials.
On Friday she attended a business conference in Bangkok and urged
potential investors against “reckless optimism” about Myanmar. She
recited a litany of the country’s flaws to a room full of multinational
executives at a time when the Myanmar government is desperately trying
to attract investment.
The Thai government’s concern, according to Mr. Suriya and the Thai news
media, is that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s trip could anger the Myanmar
government and complicate an already very delicate situation along the
border, where the new administration in Myanmar is pressing for
reconciliation with ethnic groups.
“Suu Kyi stealing the spotlight,” read a headline on Friday in Thai
Rath, the newspaper with the largest circulation in Thailand.
Some damage may already have been done: U Thein Sein, the president of
Myanmar, postponed a trip to Thailand last week after it became public
that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi would be speaking at the same conference. On
Friday he canceled the visit altogether. Mr. Thein Sein had planned to
sign an agreement about a joint economic zone that the countries are
developing.
Mr. Thein Sein’s change of plans was officially explained by a need to
attend to urgent matters at home. But those matters were never
disclosed. Two of his advisers did not respond to e-mails seeking
comment.
Mr. Suriya, who was summoned to an urgent meeting on Friday when the
Thai government decided to curtail Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s activities,
said he believed that Myanmar’s president “did not want to follow in the
footsteps of Suu Kyi.”
“He will probably wait for a while before visiting Thailand,” Mr. Suriya said.
In a news conference held before Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi flew back to
Bangkok from the border, she said that she had not consulted with
Myanmar’s government about the trip and that she did not see how it
could conflict with government efforts.
“I do not see how our efforts should overlap because I was just studying conditions in the refugee camps,” she said.
She also said she would not pass on her findings to the government.
“I do not have to report back to anybody as such because these meetings
that took place, took place out of my own initiative,” she said.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s powerful allure as a symbol of hope and democracy
has been evident during this visit. Visiting a fishing community last
week, she received a rapturous and sometimes tearful welcome from crowds
of Burmese migrant workers, the underclass of Thai society.
At the Mae La camp here on Saturday, thousands of refugees, some of them
victims of land mines, pressed forward to catch a glimpse of her in a
chaotic scene that caused several people to faint and be carried away.
“I’ve only seen photos of her,” said Ba Aye, a 54-year-old man from the
Karen ethnic group. “Today I’m going to see her in real life. I’m very
happy that Suu Kyi is coming here.”
Many in the crowd shouted: “Give us a speech! Give us a speech!”
She was not allowed more than perfunctory remarks, but she told the refugees, “You are not forgotten.”
Some in the camp, which was opened in 1984, said they did not know how
to interpret the visit, especially since Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was not
able to address the crowd for more than a few minutes.
“We heard that they might force us to go back to Burma, so we were very
sad,” said Seng Nu Mai, a woman from the Kachin ethnic group, which has
been holding peace talks with the government but has been involved in
fighting in recent months.
“It’s not possible for us to go back,” she said. “This is not the time.”
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