WHEN John Kerry, America’s secretary of state, visited Myanmar in May, many hoped he would announce the lifting of sanctions. America had imposed them in 1997, after the army made clear that it would not relinquish power any time soon. It began removing them in 2012, as the generals’ professed desire for a gradual return to democracy became more credible, most notably after Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s leading campaigner for democracy, won a parliamentary seat in a by-election.
When Mr Kerry visited she had just taken office as Myanmar’s de facto leader; the transition from military rule to civilian had started to look irreversible, if still incomplete. American firms had been freed to do business in Myanmar, but a long list of companies and individuals with ties to the army remained off-limits, as did the country’s lucrative gem trade. Mr Kerry declared that without changes to the constitution—a travesty written by the army to preserve its central role and then imposed on the country in a sham referendum in 2008—it would be “impossible” to abolish all sanctions.
This week Mr Kerry’s boss, Barack Obama, overruled him, as Miss Suu Kyi visited...Continue reading
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