BURMA DELEGATION FOR 63RD UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

UNCLAS RANGOON 000620 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR IO/UNP (SUN),USUN (TBD),NSC (MCDONALD),P (REINEMEYER),AND EAP/RSP (TIKVART) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL OTRA OVIP KSEP UNGA SUBJECT: BURMA DELEGATION FOR 63RD UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY REF: STATE 72078 ¶1. (U) On August 1, the Burmese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) provided us with the names of the Burmese Delegation to the 63rd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). ¶A. The Head of State will not attend. ¶B. The Head of Government will not attend. ¶C. The Foreign Minister, Nyan Win, will attend. He will arrive on September 20 and depart on October 4, 2008. His spouse will not accompany him and he does not need translation services. ¶D. According to the information MFA has provided, the following three MFA officials will attend as "alternate members" of the delegation: U Thant Kyaw, Deputy Director General for the International Organizations and the Economic Department; U Kyaw Tin, Deputy Director General of the Political Department; and U Maung Wai, Deputy Director General of the Consular and Legal Affairs Department. They will arrive on September 14 and depart on December 13, 2008. Their spouses will not accompany them. No further information was provided. ¶E. The MFA's Deputy Director General for International Organizations and Economics, U Thant Kyaw, will attend as the senior MFA official responsible for IO affairs. He will arrive on September 14 and depart on December 13, 2008. His spouse will not accompany him and he does not need translation services. ¶2. (U) The MFA informed us that the delegation would like to travel to Washington D.C., if permitted. In previous years, Burmese Ambassadors assigned to various countries around the world have attended UNGA, but we have not heard whether they will do so this year. We will report further information as it is received. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: In previous years the visas of the entire Burmese delegation were limited to within 25 miles of New York. Accordingly our visas for TDYers have also begun to be limited. While the Foreign Minister may be ineligible for an unrestricted visa under our law, the lower-level officials accompanying him are not, so we urge that their visas not be restricted. VILLAROSA