Dinner with Suu Kyi as Clinton backs reforms in Burma

IT WAS a meeting few could have envisaged only a few months ago. But last night US secretary of state Hillary Clinton dined with Burma’s most famous former political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi.

As the first American secretary of state to visit Burma in more than 50 years, Mrs Clinton was signalling support for recent reforms by the military-backed civilian government, which included the release from house arrest of Ms Suu Kyi.

Mrs Clinton urged the Burmese leadership to press ahead with a reform programme.

She said: “We believe any political prisoner anywhere should be released. One political prisoner is one too many in our view.”

Mrs Clinton made her comments before her private dinner with opposition leader and Nobel laureate Ms Suu Kyi, who was released last year after two decades of on-and-off imprisonment and has said she will run in forthcoming elections. They will meet formally today.

She also handed letters from president Barack Obama to president Thein Sein and Ms Suu Kyi, supporting improved relations.

Mrs Clinton said: “I came to assess whether the time is right for a new chapter in our shared history.”