Report: US military overtures to Burma worry human-rights activists

The Obama administration has sent more than 20 Defense and Homeland Security officials to Burma, London's Guardian newspaper reports, marking the strongest U.S. overture in decades to a military force that ruled the country until 2010 and prompting concerns from human-rights activists.

U.S. officials say the talks will have a strong focus on human-rights issues such as the protection of civilians in conflict zones as the United States continues to lift sanctions in response to recent democratic reforms. 

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Rangoon described it to The Guardian as "an exchange between U.S. department of defense representatives and their Burmese counterparts as part of a broad inter-agency discussion to support continued reform."

Military cooperation between the Pentagon and Burma, also known as Myanmar, is "certainly one of the areas in which we’ll consider taking further steps," Deputy Secretary of State William Burns told reporters on Monday during a briefing in Tokyo.

"We’re considering a wide variety of ways in which we can support the process of change that’s under way, and to meet actions with actions. That includes the military-to-military sphere. And so we are considering steps that could be taken in that area as well.”

Last November, top U.S. diplomats met with Burmese leaders to discuss possible military cooperation options between the two countries. The move is part of the Obama administration's “pivot” toward Asia, but administration officials have been careful to say that they are not seeking to encircle China by rebuilding ties with its neighbor to the south.