A moment in history as Hague meets 'the lady' of Burma

Foreign secretary meets Aung San Suu Kyi in British ambassador's residence in Rangoon

Foreign Secretary William Hague shakes hands with Aung San Suu Kyi at the British ambassador's residence in Rangoon. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

She arrived exactly on time. At seven o'clock a car drew up at the pillared portico of the British ambassador's residence in the centre of the bustling, ramshackle city of Rangoon and "the lady", as she is known to all in Burma, stepped out. William Hague, who had been shuffling his feet slightly nervously, stepped forward.
"Welcome," said the first British foreign secretary to visit Burma since 1955, though this in every way is her city and her country. Aung San Suu Kyi is much sought after these days. After spending most of the past 23 years in prison or under house arrest, her diary is very full. She passed the morning at the cramped headquarters of her National League for Democracy party, seeing, in succession, its senior executive, a deputation of families of political prisoners and the leader of another pro-democracy group. After the domestic came the international: three global television networks and Hague.
The intervening years have been dark for Aung San Suu Kyi and the country. In 1962, when she was 17 years old, the military seized power and have held it ever since. In 1988, as the daughter of the country's most famous freedom fighter, she became the public face of popular protests against the repressive regime. Thousands were killed in a crackdown, Aung San Suu Kyi was confined to her home and the elections in 1990, won by the NLD, were cancelled. The isolation of Burma deepened. Now, although US and European Union sanctions are still in place, that isolation is ending. A nominally civilian government has been appointed. An election, though deeply flawed, has been held and Aung San Suu Kyi released from house arrest.
The president's political adviser, Nay Zinn Latt, told the Guardian that one day the NLD could be "the ruling party", one of the most outspoken declarations of change in the still secretive and repressive state so far.
Earlier in the day Hague, flying in from Bangkok, met the president, Thein Sein, in the new capital of Naypyidaw, hacked out of swamp and scrub at enormous expense over the past decade. A statement released in London said that, during their talk, Hague had emphasised "the importance the British government attaches to the reforms that the Burmese government has undertaken in the last six months". These reforms have seen censorship eased, new labour laws passed and a new willingness to find an accommodation with ethnic minorities. But confusion following Hague's meeting with the Burmese foreign minister underlined just how tentative these changes are.
Hague was reported as saying that he had been assured by his Burmese counterpart that the political prisoners held in horrific conditions in the country would be freed. However, in an interview with the BBC Burmese service, foreign secretary Wunna Maung Lwi said there were only "criminals" in Burmese jails. The issue is a deeply emotive one in Rangoon. Between 600 and 1,700 political prisoners are thought to be jailed and the most recent crackdown, following the Saffron Revolution in 2007, saw hundreds handed sentences of up to 65 years.
Wa Wa Win remembers the knock at midnight from the police and military intelligence when they came to take her husband, Pyone Cho, away. An activist since 1988, he had first been detained within months of their marriage and spent six years in jail. Arrested again four years ago, and given an effective life sentence in a show trial, he is now held in the distant town of Kaunt Thang. To see her husband for 30 minutes, Wa Wa Win, 46, travels for six days. Occasionally she receives a letter. "I would love to see my husband released but I am not hoping for anything," she said.
The issue is a problem for Aung San Suu Kyi, too. On Thursday she described President Thein Sein – appointed by the elderly military dictator, Than Shwe, in March 2010 to lead the nominally civilian government and a transition to democracy – as "an honest man … a man capable of taking risks if he thinks they are worth taking". But there was widespread disappointment at the limited extent of an amnesty to mark the anniversary of Burmese independence from British imperial rule earlier this week. Only 10 political prisoners were freed, all serving short sentences.
"We cannot say there is any change. We can just glimpse some kind of road ahead, but we are still at the starting point," said Kokoji, an activist and former prisoner. "As long as there are still political prisoners, abuses, civil war and land grabs, you cannot talk of change."
Aung San Suu Kyi herself said she was worried about "how much support there is in the military for changes", admitting that reforms were not "unstoppable". Yet change is coming to Burma, whatever the military wants. Earlier this week, activists organised a film festival in a shopping mall in the centre of Rangoon. So many people turned up that a screen was set up on the street outside. The crowd gasped and clapped as they watched images of the 2007 uprising and police brutality as well as footage of ethnic minorities battling the feared Burmese army.
"There should be more and more events like this," said Ko Han, a 43-year-old trader who had been passing with his wife and daughter. "This means people get informed. If there is only a very little bit we can still say there is change."
Ko Han welcomed Hague's visit as "it will mean more pressure" on the "half-military government", as he called it. And Aung San Suu Kyi? "The lady has sacrificed so much for our country. She is our leader."

Jason Burke in Rangoon