Is Burma softening its stance?
This month Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi passed two milestones.
The first was 14 years - that is the amount of time she has now spent in detention during the past two decades.
The second was to meet Western diplomats and begin talks with Burmese military leaders - talks which some think could see her released.
"Given the impasse of the last 20 years, what has happened in the last three months gives us the hope there will be some movement," says Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador and current Burma activist...
... Soon after the trial ended, Senator Jim Webb became the most senior US official to meet Burma's top general, Than Shwe.
He was also allowed to see Aung San Suu Kyi - something even UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon could not do.
As a man reporting back directly to President Barack Obama, his message that "sanctions hadn't worked" was what the generals wanted to hear...
Read entire article at BBC
The first was 14 years - that is the amount of time she has now spent in detention during the past two decades.
The second was to meet Western diplomats and begin talks with Burmese military leaders - talks which some think could see her released.
"Given the impasse of the last 20 years, what has happened in the last three months gives us the hope there will be some movement," says Derek Tonkin, a former British ambassador and current Burma activist...
... Soon after the trial ended, Senator Jim Webb became the most senior US official to meet Burma's top general, Than Shwe.
He was also allowed to see Aung San Suu Kyi - something even UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon could not do.
As a man reporting back directly to President Barack Obama, his message that "sanctions hadn't worked" was what the generals wanted to hear...