Senator Frees American, Meets Suu Kyi In Myanmar

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DAVID GREENE, host:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Im David Greene.

An American who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor in Myanmar is on his way home today. Democratic Senator Jim Webb of Virginia secured the release of John Yettaw of Missouri, who swam across a lake to a home where pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was being held on house arrest. Her detention sentence has now been extended. Now during his visits, Senator Webb had several meetings. He was granted a rare meeting with the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and also he met with the chief of Myanmars junta, Senior General Than Shwe. It was the first time the general has met with a senior U.S. political figure.

To help us understand all of this, were joined by NPRs Michael Sullivan in Bangkok. So, Senator Webb had a press conference to talk about his visit today. What did he say about, I guess both of these meetings with Aung San Suu Kyi and also General Shwe?

MICHAEL SULLIVAN: Well, he was pretty upbeat. He was pretty positive about the whole thing. He said he went to Myanmar and he asked the general basically for three things: to release John Yettaw, to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi and to release Aung San Suu Kyi before next years scheduled elections. Now, the government said yes to the first two. The government hasnt responded to the last one, he says. But he said those two granting those two requests were gestures of goodwill on the part of Myanmars military leaders. And he says that was something that he hoped the U.S. could build on in the future.

GREENE: But of course there are critics of the junta who say that that release of Aung San Suu Kyi is the key thing that theyll be looking for, obviously.

SULLIVAN: Yes. And there are some people who would also say that U.S. policy and the West policy in general towards Myanmar has been largely predicated on the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, that its been seeing through the prism of Aung San Suu Kyi and her release and that the U.S. policy has simply failed -that economic sanctions have failed. That hard talk about the generals needing to release her and all the other political prisoners before theyd be recognized, thats failed.

And I think Senator Webb has a slightly different view. Hes more in favor of engagement. And I think that the Obama administration has also signaled that theyre very much in favor of reconsidering Myanmar policy because they know that it hasnt worked either.

So I think thats one of the reasons that Senator Webb went to Myanmar officially, of course. He cant say that hes carrying a message from the Obama administration. And he said today that, you know, officially he wasnt asked by Myanmars generals to pass any specific messages back to the Obama administration, but baby steps, yeah?

GREENE: Baby steps. Well, this Missouri man who took the swim, John Yettaw. Any conditions attached to his release and did he have anything to say?

SULLIVAN: No conditions attached to his release. Senator Webb had argued that he needed to be released on humanitarian grounds because he had several medical issues that came up during his nearly four months of detention. And the Myanmar government granted that request. He arrived in Bangkok today with Senator Webb and he went immediately to the hospital. So, he wasnt at Senator Webbs news conference. And I dont suspect were going to hear from him anytime soon.

GREENE: NPRs Michael Sullivan. Were following the story. Hes reporting to us from Bangkok. Michael, thank you.

SULLIVAN: Youre welcome.

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