Word: naypyidaw
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...Instead, Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and his deputy, Scot Marciel, met with Prime Minister Thein Sein, who wields little actual political power, in the inland capital of Naypyidaw on the second day of their two day visit. They later flew to Rangoon to confer with 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, who was allowed to travel from the home where she has spent 14 of the past 20 years under arrest to a downtown hotel where the diplomats were staying. (See pictures of Burma's slowly shifting landscape...
...West might regard him as backward, but Than Shwe, 76, sees himself as a bold reformer who took a bankrupt nation and threw it open to foreign investment, who built not just roads and bridges but a grand new capital called Naypyidaw - "Abode of Kings." The reality is a little different. Foreign trade has enriched the junta; the Yadana natural-gas project alone has earned the regime $4.83 billion since 2000, according to the Washington-based nonprofit EarthRights International in a recent report. But most Burmese still live in wretched poverty. The new capital is an expensive boondoggle...
...this was happening [the regime] took advantage of that situation to promote close ties to China." Burma joined ASEAN in 1997, gaining further allies against Western criticism and more trade opportunities (Thailand gets most of its natural gas from Burma), and is improving ties with India. Even at Naypyidaw, once a symbol of seclusion, the junta plans to build an international airport to handle over 10 million passengers a year. "They're much less isolationist than we think, although they choose their friends carefully," says Rogers. "Those friends tend to be countries that turn a blind eye to their conduct...
...addition to representing the state of Virginia, U.S. Senator Jim Webb has penned novels featuring swashbuckling Americans seeking adventure in exotic backwaters. But even he might not have imagined a scenario in which a U.S. military aircraft flies him to the heavily fortified Burmese capital, Naypyidaw, to meet the country's reclusive military leader and secure the release of an American prisoner...
...Nevertheless, the State Department has made it clear that Webb was not acting as an official emissary during his Burma trip. As speculation over the rationale for the Senator's trip grew, some Burma-watchers wondered whether Webb was traveling to Naypyidaw in order to secure the release of John Yettaw, the American who embarked on the midnight swim to Suu Kyi's home in May. Like Webb, Yettaw is a Vietnam-war veteran. Earlier this week, Yettaw was sentenced to seven years of hard labor by a Burmese court. Over the past decade, Westerners who have been handed harsh...