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    July 13, 2011

Second Burmese Diplomat Defects in Washington

   VOA News

   A Burmese diplomat has defected in Washington, D.C., the second to do
   so in less than two weeks.
   U Soe Aung has told VOA's Burmese service that he has sent a letter to
   the U.S. State Department Wednesday morning announcing his decision to
   defect. He has been serving as the Burmese embassy's first secretary.
   He was posted there in 2008.
   The career diplomat told VOA that he feared for his safety and that of
   his family.
   He said that two other Burmese diplomats who have recently returned
   home from assignments in Washington have been investigated in relation
   to the defection last week of another official in Washington. U Soe
   Aung said he also had been recalled to be investigated.
   Kyaw Win, the deputy chief of mission at the embassy, resigned last
   week and defected. In a July 4 letter to U.S. Secretary of State
   Hillary Clinton, he said his efforts to push for reform have been
   rejected and that he fears prosecution if he returns to Burma.
   Kyaw Win told VOA's Burmese Service Wednesday that there is a pattern
   of discrimination against civilian staff at the embassy and that only
   civilians had been investigated, not military or ex-military staff,
   following his defection.
   He urged the United States to maintain targeted economic sanctions
   against the Burmese leaders and their businessmen allies, and to press
   for an international council of inquiry to investigate Burmese human
   rights abuses.
   Kyaw Win said in his letter he had hoped that, over time, Burma's
   military would ease its grip on power and move toward greater political
   pluralism. But, he said, the military has retained its hold on power in
   spite of elections last year that brought in a nominally civilian
   leadership.
   He warned that a civil war against ethnic minority militias could begin
   and said threats against democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi should be
   taken seriously.
   Burma's government has long been considered one of the most repressive
   in the world. The United States and many other governments have imposed
   tough economic sanctions on the country because of its lack of
   political reform.
   The military described last year's election, the first in 20 years, as
   a key element of a plan to return the country to civilian rule after
   four decades of army leadership. But human rights activists and Burmese
   refugees say the election simply cemented military control, since an
   army-backed party won 80 percent of the elected parliament seats.

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