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(18 May 2012) Human rights activists urged caution on Friday as US President Barack Obama eased an investment ban on Myanmar and named the first US ambassador to the country in 22 years to reward it for democratic reforms.
Some activists said it was premature to reward a government that remains dominated by its military and still holds hundreds of political prisoners.
Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher on Thailand in Human Rights Watch's Asia division, said the sanctions should be removed "gradually and conditionally" in order to ensure more democratic reform in Myanmar.
"We urge that the easing of sanction needs to match up with reality in Burma," he said.
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's election to parliament last month has prompted Western governments to roll back years of hard-hitting restrictions against the Asian nation, also known as Burma, which is emerging from decades of authoritarian rule and diplomatic isolation.
After meeting Myanmar's foreign minister, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the US was suspending sanctions on export of American financial services and investment across all sectors of the Myanmar economy, including in the resource-rich country's lucrative oil, gas and mining sectors.
She described it as the most significant action Washington has taken so far to reward Myanmar for its reforms.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma, one of the biggest coalitions of exiled activists from Myanmar and activists promoting democracy in the country, said the Obama administration was prematurely rewarding Myanmar while its military was escalating violence against ethnic minorities.
The fighting between government forces and the Kachin ethnic minority in the north of the country over the past year has displaced tens of thousands of villagers.
"I think the US government is making a dreadful mistake for doing that, because this could send a wrong signal to those in the Myanmar government that their reform efforts are enough," said Soe Aung, Deputy Secretary of Forum for Democracy in Burma.
Despite the easing of restrictions, US companies would still be barred from doing business with firms associated with the country's powerful military.
The White House also announced it was keeping its framework of hard-hitting sanctions in place for now, saying Myanmar's democratic reforms are still "nascent."
Clinton voiced concern over the continued detention of political prisoners.
Western governments say hundreds of such detainees are still held despite a series of amnesties granted by Myanmar's President Thein Sein over the past year.
The US investment ban has been in place since 1997.
US businesses have been pushing the administration to follow the example of the European Union, which recently suspended all its economic sanctions, including on trade, although like the US, it retains an arms embargo.
American businesses could yet be constrained in their involvement in the oil, gas, mining and timber industries because of military involvement in those sectors.


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