SUBJECT: BURMA: ASSK LETTER TO THAN SHWE SEEKS TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000664 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP AND IO; PACOM FOR FPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/28/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BM SUBJECT: SUBJECT: BURMA: ASSK LETTER TO THAN SHWE SEEKS TO OPEN DIALOGUE ON SANCTIONS REF: REF: RANGOON 659 Classified By: P/E Chief Jennifer A. Harhigh for Reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) ¶1. (C) National League for Democracy (NLD) Spokesman Nyan Win told us September 26 that during a September 25 meeting with her lawyers, Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK) finalized and signed a personal letter to Than Shwe regarding sanctions. Nyan Win gave one copy of the letter to Police Special Branch and also put the registered letter in the mail to Than Shwe September 26. Nyan Win provided us a copy September 27. The letter includes an ASSK request to meet with the U.S., the EU, and Australia. See paragraph 3 for Embassy comment. ¶2. (SBU) Begin unofficial Embassy translation: Senior General Than Shwe Chairman State Peace and Development Council Nay Pyi Taw Date: September 25, 2009 Subject: The Removal (or revocation) of Sanctions Imposed on Myanmar On September 9, 2009, I requested special branch police to pass on the following proposal, and my intention to cooperate on the aforementioned subject. I propose to cooperate with the SPDC to lift the sanctions imposed on Myanmar. In order to lift sanctions, it is necessary for all stakeholders to understand: a) All of the facts about sanctions, b) The scope of (economic) loss caused by sanctions, c) The opinions of the countries imposing the sanctions. In that respect, I would like to request meetings with: a) The U.S. Charge d, Affaires in Myanmar, b) An Ambassador representing the EU in Myanmar, c) The Australian Ambassador in Myanmar. Furthermore, I would like to request a meeting with the NLD to discuss their opinions on the matter. Respectfully, //S// Aung San Suu Kyi End unofficial translation. Comment -------------- ¶3. (C) To our knowledge, this is the first personal letter from ASSK to Than Shwe. The NLD has distributed it widely. Some in the media are speculating that ASSK has changed her views on sanctions. This is not clear. It does appear, however, that ASSK is taking advantage of the opportunity posed by the USG policy review to restate her openness to unconditional dialogue with the regime, including on sanctions. Openness to dialogue has been a common ASSK refrain, repeated most recently in her meeting with Senator Webb. Than Shwe's response to a previous ASSK dialogue request in October 2007 was to call on ASSK first to renounce sanctions and other negative policies the GOB accused her of advocating. Via the NLD, ASSK denied holding the negative views in the first place and argued she could not renounce what she had not held. In effect, ASSK may now be signaling that the NLD is ready and willing to take up the dialogue process the USG envisions in its new engagement strategy, RANGOON 00000664 002 OF 002 which, if successful would result in removal of sanctions. That puts the onus on the GOB to be similarly forthcoming, and it accents the message to us last week (reftel) that the NLD wants to be intimately involved in USG-GOB discussions on Burma's political future. We are curious to see how Than Shwe responds. DINGER