Signs of progress?

The cynic in me wants to say that the latest release of political prisoners in Burma announced this week (126 in total) are the usual Junta policy of making minimal concessions to appease the least strident of its critics in the international community, thereby dividing international opinion.


http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-18-voa14.cfm

This is a pattern we have seen before. However news today that the Burmese PM will attend the UN General Assembly this week for the first time in 14 years came on the back of news that Washington allowed the Burmese foreign minister to visit the Burmese embassy for the first time in 9 years suggesting that all these events are related.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/22/AR2009092202911.html

As if part of a co-ordinated but unseen an unannounced road map towards the normalization of relations between the US and Burma Senator Jim Webb (the Senator who won John Yettaw's release and met Aung San Suu Kyi in August) today also announced he would call for a Senate hearing on the efficacy of US sanctions towards Burma.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-22-voa56.cfm

Could we be seeing the start of the new approach? And might this approach lead to Suu Kyi's release? Watch this space, but remain sceptical.