MUTUAL ADMIRATION: Hillary Clinton visits yesterday with freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon. (AFP/Getty Images)
In a historic gesture, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today — in the home where the Nobel Peace laureate endured 15 years of house arrest — and challenged the country’s new civilian government to break with its brutal past.
“We believe that any political prisoner anywhere should be released,” Clinton told reporters. “One political prisoner is one too many, in our view.”
Clinton is the first secretary of state since John Foster Dulles more than 50 years ago to visit Burma, which is emerging from decades of military dictatorship.
PHOTOS: HILLARY CLINTON VISITS MYANMAR
She enjoyed Burmese delicacies at a private, one-on-one dinner with Suu Kyi at the US chief of mission residence in Rangoon yesterday, and today visited the leader at the lakeside home that had served as her prison.
There, she found Suu Kyi had a poster signed by Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.
Suu Kyi said she has read books by both Hillary and ex-President Bill Clinton.
Suu Kyi talked about running in Burma’s parliamentary elections.
The United States pulled its ambassador out of the country, now widely called Myanmar, in 1990
Clinton gave Suu Kyi a letter from President Obama thanking her “for the inspiration you provide all of us around the world” and promising to “stand by you now and always.”
Wrapping up the meeting, the two leaders held hands on the porch of Suu Kyi’s home.
Clinton told her, “You have been an inspiration . . . You are standing for all the people of your country who deserve the same rights and freedoms as people everywhere.’’
Suu Kyi said, “If we move forward together I am confident there will be no turning back on the road to democracy.’’ She added, “We are not on that road yet, but we hope to get there as soon as possible with the help and understanding of our friends.’’
Clinton met yesterday with Burma’s current army-backed president, Thein Sein, and said the reforms he has implemented were “unprecedented and welcomed” but “just a beginning.”
She also gave him a letter from Obama, but its contents were not disclosed.
US officials are closely watching for shifts in Burma, which has close ties to North Korea and China. Clinton pressed Thein Sein to stop cooperating with North Korea’s missile-building efforts and to honor the UN sanctions against Pyongyang.
Clinton said significant incentives will be offered, but only if the government ends brutal campaigns against ethnic minorities and improves human-rights conditions.
She offered him a small package of rewards for reforms made so far, but said the Obama administration isn’t ready to lift tough sanctions.