BURMA: THAI AMBASSADOR SKEPTICAL ABOUT CURRENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L RANGOON 001001

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV
COMMERCE FOR ITA JEAN KELLY
TREASURY FOR OASIA JEFF NEIL
USPACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/21/2013
TAGS: PREL BM TH
SUBJECT: BURMA: THAI AMBASSADOR SKEPTICAL ABOUT CURRENT
ROADMAP EFFORTS

REF: A. BANGKOK 5119


B. RANGOON 978

Classified By: COM Carmen Martinez for Reasons 1.5 (B,D)


1. (C) Summary: According to the Thai Ambassador to Burma,
the Burmese regime has yet to offer any official or
substantive reaction to the Thai "roadmap." Although the
Thai Embassy here has not been included in RTG efforts to
garner support for the roadmap, the Thai ambassador believes
that the proposal will not succeed unless it becomes a
multilateral effort. That said, he expects the SPDC will
proceed on its own terms without regard to international
proposals or pressure. End summary.


2. (C) Thai Ambassador Oum Maolanon, joined by political
counselor Kallayana Vipattipumiprates, met on August 18 with
COM and pol/econ chief to discuss recent Burma-related
developments. Maolanon said that he had not yet seen the
Thai "roadmap" for Burma, but he understood it to be a
lengthy and comprehensive document. He noted that the
proposal was the product of "only two or three senior Thai
officials, including specific input from Foreign Minister
Surakiart." Ambassador Maolanon observed that he had
received no instructions from Bangkok to pursue the roadmap
with the GOB and intimated he was perplexed at why the issue
was being handled without Thai Embassy involvement.


3. (C) Maolanon reported that to date the SPDC has yet to
respond to Thai overtures. Maolanon anticipated a reaction
late on August 18 when Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win
summoned him to MOFA headquarters. However, Maolanon and
Kallayana later revealed to the COM that the meeting with the
DFM was a "weird" encounter that lasted less than three
minutes. Maolanon said the DFM handed over some papers of an
administrative nature, but he had no official communication
for the Thai Prime Minister or Foreign Minister and said
nothing about the roadmap, other than to comment that "the
leaders are engaged in internal discussions."


4. (C) Maolanon offered his view that the Burmese were
unlikely to accept a bilateral proposal from Thailand as a
roadmap for next steps. He said that any such proposal would
have to be a larger multilateral effort to be palatable to
the SPDC, but added that the Burmese generals would move
ahead only on their own terms--including any decision related
to the release of detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He
agreed that ASEAN members would be unhappy to have the Burma
crisis dominate October ASEAN meetings in Bali, and suggested
that the SPDC may try to find some breathing room by
transferring ASSK from detention at an undisclosed location
to house arrest at her Rangoon compound.


5. (C) Bio note: Ambassador Maolanon will finish his three
year tour in Burma in the coming months and return to Bangkok
where he expects to be take up duties in October at the MFA
as Director General of American and South Pacific Affairs.


6. (U) This cable has been coordinated with Embassy Bangkok.

Martinez