A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Myanmar to release more dissidents, but said it was already looking at whether reforms there could justify a further easing of sanctions.
“We hope that these elections are conducted in a fair and transparent manner. This would be yet another step toward national conciliation,” spokesman Michael Mann said.
The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Suu Kyi, announced Friday that it would take part in the forthcoming by-elections, after the government amended its law on registration of political parties.
The party boycotted last year’s general voting, and the move was seen as further sign of political rapprochement under Myanmar’s new civilian government.
Mann hailed the “encouraging, positive developments” in the country and expressed hope they would continue, “including a further substantial release of political prisoners.”
“The EU has always stated that it will respond to positive events in the country. The restrictive measures have already been partly modified in April,” he said, referring to EU sanctions. “A more substantial review of EU policy is already under way.”
The EU comments came after US President Barack Obama said on Friday that he saw “flickers of progress” in Myanmar and would be sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a historic visit that could help the country emerge from a half century of isolation.
Clinton’s Dec. 1 visit would be the first by a US secretary of state since a 1962 military coup ushered in decades of unbroken military rule that ended in March, when a nominally civilian parliament was established.
Ashton sent her top foreign policy adviser to Myanmar earlier this year, and the EU slightly eased sanctions in April by suspending enforcement of travel bans and asset freezes on 24 civilian government officials to encourage reform.
The new government has called for peace with minority groups, displayed some tolerance of criticism, suspended an unpopular Chinese-funded dam project, freed about 230 political prisoners and somewhat improved relations with Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who was freed last year after 15 years of detention.
However, large numbers of political prisoners remain and EU officials have said they would wait to see how many were actually freed, when judging the government’s sincerity.
One EU diplomat said his country was still taking a wait-and-see attitude. “Although the military government has given way to a so-called civilian government, it still seems that this may be window-dressing and we would like to see some results.”
