Obama, Cambodia premier crisp on 1st presidential visit

President Barack Obama on Monday embraces Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her lakeside residence in Rangoon, Burma.
President Barack Obama on Monday embraces Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at her lakeside residence in Rangoon, Burma.

— On a history-making trip, President Barack Obama on Monday paid the first visit by an American leader to Burma and Cambodia, two Asian countries with troubled histories, one on the mend and the other still a cause of concern.


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Obama’s fast-paced, pre-Thanksgiving trip vividly illustrated the different paths the regional neighbors are taking to overcome legacies of violence, poverty and repression.

Cheered by flag-waving crowds, Obama offered long-isolated Burma a “hand of friendship” as it rapidly embraces democratic changes. Hours later, he arrived in Cambodia to little fanfare, then pointedly criticized the country’s strongman leader on the issue of human rights during a tense meeting.

photo

AP

President Barack Obama (left) toasts with Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday at the East Asia Summit dinner at the Diamond Island Convention Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Obama was an early champion of Burma’s sudden transformation to civilian rule after a half-century of military dictatorship. He’s rewarded the country, also known as Myanmar, with eased economic penalties, increased U.S. investment and now a presidential visit,in part to show other nations the benefits of pursuing similar changes.

“You’re taking a journey that has the potential to inspire so many people,” Obama said during a speech at Burma’s University of Rangoon.

The Cambodians are among those Obama is hoping will be motivated. White House officials said he held up Burma, a once-pariah state, as a benchmark during his private meeting Monday evening with Prime Minister Hun Sen, the autocratic Cambodian leader who has held power for nearly 30 years. Hun Sen’s rivals have sometimes ended up in jail or in exile.

Unlike the arrangement after Obama’s meetings with Burma’s President Thein Sein and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the U.S. and Cambodian leaders did not speak to reporters after their one-on-one talks. They did step before cameras briefly before their meeting to greet each other with a brisk handshake and little warmth.

In private, U.S. officials said, Obama pressed Hun Sen to release political prisoners, stop land seizures and hold free and fair elections. Aides acknowledged the meeting was tense, with the Cambodian leader defending his practices, even as he professed to seek a deeper relationship with the U.S.

Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, said the president told Hun Sen that without changes, Cambodia’s human-rights woes would continue to be “an impediment” to that effort.

White House officials emphasized that Obama would not have visited Cambodia had it not been hosting two regional summit meetings the U.S. attends, a rare admonishment of a country on its own soil.

Winding down his trip, Obama talked on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. Briefly addressing reporters before the private meeting began, Obama called the relationship between the U.S. and Japan a “cornerstone of prosperity and security in the region.” The two leaders were set to discuss jobs, trade and the economy.

The meeting was expected to be the last time the two met for business. Noda dissolved his country’s parliament last week, setting the stage for new elections his party is unlikely to win.

The Cambodian people appeared to answer Obama’s cold shoulder in kind. Just a few small clusters of curious Cambodians gathered on the streets to watch his motorcade speed though the streets of Phnom Penh.

A welcome sign did greet Obama upon his arrival - but it instead heralded Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Human-rights groups fear that because Obama delivered his condemnation of Hun Sen in private, government censors will keep his words from reaching the Cambodian people. And they worry the prime minister will then use Obama’s visit to justify his grip on power and weaken the will of opposition groups.

“If Hun Sen’s narrative about this visit is allowed to gel, it will create a perception that the United States and other international actors stand with Hun Sen, and not with the Cambodian people,” said John Sifton, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It will be a tremendous blow to Cambodians who challenge his rule.”

Hun Sen is known as one of Asia’s most Machiavellian politicians, with a knack for making sure his rivals end up in jail or in exile.

Over the past decade, he has also overseen modest economic growth and stability in a country plagued by desperate poverty and nearly destroyed by the Khmer Rouge’s “killing fields.”

Cabinet spokesman Phay Siphan points out that Cambodia has experienced steady growth for the past 10 years, and expects to attain a per-capita income topping $1,000 in 2013.

Obama’s visit to Burma was also viewed critically by some international organizations, which saw the trip as a premature reward for a country that still holds political prisoners and has been unable to contain ethic violence.

Aware of that criticism, Obama tempered some of his praise for Burma during his six-hour visit. He underscored that the changes that have taken hold over the past year are “just the first steps on what will be a long journey.”

Perhaps the sharpest calls for caution came from Suu Kyi, Burma’s longtime democracy champion. After meeting with Obama at the home where she spent years under house arrest, she warned that the most difficult part of the transition will be “when we think that success is in sight.”

“Then we have to be very careful that we’re not lured by the mirage of success,” Suu Kyi said, speaking with Obama by her side.

Obama and Suu Kyi greeted each other like old friends before retreating into her home for a brief talk as onlookers shouted “Freedom!” outside her gates.

Burma is home to 55 million people, many of whom have lived in near isolation for five decades while a military junta ruled the nation.

In Rangoon, signs of capitalism are everywhere. Billboards, written in English, advertised Samsung, Panasonic and Rolex products while hotels are at capacity. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced Monday that it will co-host a symposium in February in Rangoon, hoping to spur American investments in Burma’s economy that will contribute to a “more stable and open society.”

As further incentive for change, Obama on Monday pledged $170 million in aid over two years as long as the government agreed to a host of changes, including ending its military relationship with North Korea.

The president, winding down his first foreign trip after winning re-election, had meetings scheduled in Cambodia today with his counterparts in the East Asia Summit. Obama has added the summit to his annual list of high-priority international meetings as he seeks to expand U.S. influence in the region.

Obama will also meet separately on the sidelines of the summit with Wen, the Chinese premier. It’s likely to be Obama’s last bilateral meeting Wen, as China is undergoing its first leadership transition in a decade, with Wen and President Hu Jintao stepping down to clear the way for new leaders in the country’s Communist Party.

Obama will return to Washington before dawn Wednesday, in time for the ceremonial pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkey.

Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Jim Kuhnhenn and Grant Peck of The Associated Press; and by Anita Kumar of McClatchy Newspapers.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/20/2012

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