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                       Obama to Make Historic Burma Visit

   by VOA News

   Burmese officials say President Barack Obama plans to visit the country
   later this month, becoming the first ever U.S. head of state to travel
   to the once-isolated southeast Asian nation.
   Speaking anonymously, Burmese officials told reporters that President
   Obama will travel to Burma on either November 18 or 19.
   The U.S. government has not confirmed the visit, but Obama was already
   tentatively planning to attend a regional summit that week in the
   nearby southeast Asian country of Cambodia.
   The Obama administration has overseen a rapid warming of relations with
   Burma since a nominally civilian government took power last year,
   ending five decades of harsh military rule.
   President Thein Sein, a former military officer, has released political
   prisoners, relaxed media restrictions, and allowed greater involvement
   for opposition parties.
   In response, Washington has lifted most of its devastating sanctions
   against Burma, appointed an ambassador, and conducted high-level
   meetings with the once-pariah state.
   But some human rights activists accuse Washington of moving too
   quickly. They say the U.S. should not so quickly give up its leverage,
   saying many of the human rights gains are still reversible.
   Thai-based Burmese democracy activist Soe Aung says he has not received
   confirmation about a visit to Burma by Obama. He would cautiously
   support such a move, but hopes it would be accompanied by a renewed
   focus on Burma's human rights problems.
   "I would welcome a President Obama visit to Burma, but he has to make
   sure that a message that a U.S. president is going to send across to
   the Burmese regime must be very clear and strong enough to make this
   current regime respect the human rights of the ethnic minorities in the
   country, because the situation has not been improved at all," he said.
   He says the situation that concerns him most is the ongoing Burmese
   military offensive against ethnic Kachin minorities in northern Burma,
   where he says around 100,000 are currently displaced.
   In addition to military violence in the north, activists are
   increasingly worried about western Rakhine state, where communal unrest
   has killed scores of minority Rohingya Muslims in recent months.
   The United Nations says the Rohingya, who are denied citizenship and
   many other basic rights, are among the most persecuted minorities in
   the world.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-to-make-historic-burma-visit/15
   41743.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/obama-to-make-historic-burma-visit/1541743.html