First U.S. Congressmen Visit To Burma In A Decade Brings Home John Yettaw

Senator gains release of American jailed in Myanmar

(CNN) — U.S. Sen. Jim Webb obtained the release Saturday of American John Yettaw, who had been sentenced to seven years of hard labor in Myanmar for visiting detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, his office said.

Webb, who chairs the East Asia and Pacific Affairs subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, will accompany Yettaw to Bangkok, Thailand, on Sunday aboard a military aircraft, his office said.

Yettaw’s wife, Betty, told CNN from Missouri that she had received no official word of her husband’s release. She added that if there were anything positive about the situation, it is that people now know where Myanmar is. She declined further comment.

It is the second success in a day for Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, who earlier held separate meetings with Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s top official, junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

“It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of good will and confidence-building in the future,” Webb said in a statement.

Webb met with Suu Kyi for nearly an hour Saturday, his office said. He described the meeting as “an opportunity for me to convey my deep respect to Aung San Suu Kyi for the sacrifices she has made on behalf of democracy around the world.”

Webb is also the first American official ever to meet with Than Shwe. Webb said he requested that the country’s leadership release Suu Kyi from her 18-month house arrest.

Webb is the first member of Congress to visit Myanmar, also known as Burma, in more than a decade. Though he is not in the country on behalf of the State Department, he is there in his official capacity as a senator, and his trip may indicate a shift in America’s hard-line stance against the reclusive country.

“He has been very consistent in his view about the need for aggressive diplomacy with these kind of authoritarian regimes around the world,” Webb’s spokeswoman, Jessica Smith, told CNN from Washington.

She said Webb believes that “if we engage with Burma, it will benefit all countries involved if we speak to Burma’s leadership.”

Webb’s discussions with the country’s leaders were “very frank,” Smith said.

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