US embassy cable - 03RANGOON1001

C O N F I D E N T I A L RANGOON 001001 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV 
COMMERCE FOR ITA JEAN KELLY 
TREASURY FOR OASIA JEFF NEIL 
USPACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/21/2013 
TAGS: PREL, BM, TH 
SUBJECT: BURMA: THAI AMBASSADOR SKEPTICAL ABOUT CURRENT 
ROADMAP EFFORTS 
 
REF: A. BANGKOK 5119 
 
     B. RANGOON 978 
 
Classified By: COM Carmen Martinez for Reasons 1.5 (B,D) 
 
1. (C) Summary: According to the Thai Ambassador to Burma, 
the Burmese regime has yet to offer any official or 
substantive reaction to the Thai "roadmap."  Although the 
Thai Embassy here has not been included in RTG efforts to 
garner support for the roadmap, the Thai ambassador believes 
that the proposal will not succeed unless it becomes a 
multilateral effort.  That said, he expects the SPDC will 
proceed on its own terms without regard to international 
proposals or pressure.  End summary. 
 
2. (C) Thai Ambassador Oum Maolanon, joined by political 
counselor Kallayana Vipattipumiprates, met on August 18 with 
COM and pol/econ chief to discuss recent Burma-related 
developments.  Maolanon said that he had not yet seen the 
Thai "roadmap" for Burma, but he understood it to be a 
lengthy and comprehensive document.  He noted that the 
proposal was the product of "only two or three senior Thai 
officials, including specific input from Foreign Minister 
Surakiart."  Ambassador Maolanon observed that he had 
received no instructions from Bangkok to pursue the roadmap 
with the GOB and intimated he was perplexed at why the issue 
was being handled without Thai Embassy involvement. 
 
3. (C) Maolanon reported that to date the SPDC has yet to 
respond to Thai overtures.  Maolanon anticipated a reaction 
late on August 18 when Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win 
summoned him to MOFA headquarters.  However, Maolanon and 
Kallayana later revealed to the COM that the meeting with the 
DFM was a "weird" encounter that lasted less than three 
minutes.  Maolanon said the DFM handed over some papers of an 
administrative nature, but he had no official communication 
for the Thai Prime Minister or Foreign Minister and said 
nothing about the roadmap, other than to comment that "the 
leaders are engaged in internal discussions." 
 
4. (C) Maolanon offered his view that the Burmese were 
unlikely to accept a bilateral proposal from Thailand as a 
roadmap for next steps.  He said that any such proposal would 
have to be a larger multilateral effort to be palatable to 
the SPDC, but added that the Burmese generals would move 
ahead only on their own terms--including any decision related 
to the release of detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi.  He 
agreed that ASEAN members would be unhappy to have the Burma 
crisis dominate October ASEAN meetings in Bali, and suggested 
that the SPDC may try to find some breathing room by 
transferring ASSK from detention at an undisclosed location 
to house arrest at her Rangoon compound. 
 
5. (C) Bio note:  Ambassador Maolanon will finish his three 
year tour in Burma in the coming months and return to Bangkok 
where he expects to be take up duties in October at the MFA 
as Director General of American and South Pacific Affairs. 
 
6. (U) This cable has been coordinated with Embassy Bangkok. 
 
Martinez