WASHINGTON–Burma will hold its elections at the end of this year, and Jared Genser, president of Freedom Now, underscored in a forum this is an opportunity that the U.S. , with the rest of the international community, should act on.

Lorne Craner, president of International Republican Institute, also warned, “This year could be the end of the opposition.” Craner is former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.

 “The eyes of the world will again be on Burma ,” Genser stressed at “The Way Ahead on U.S. Burma Policy” forum organized by the Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank here. “The junta claims elections will be free and fair.” He added that if the 2008 elections were the criterion, “they will be anything but.” He urged India and China “to press Burma to hold free elections.”

The elections was taken up at a press conference about the July 19-21 Asia trip of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Assistant Secretary for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told reporters: “I think the steps that we’ve seen to date suggest that these will not be free and fair elections…” 

He added: “And we’re concerned by the fact that the government has not engaged in a domestic dialogue with its critics and others. And obviously, the United States is prepared under the right circumstances to engage and to work with the government in terms of trying to improve the domestic circumstances inside the country and its international behavior going forward.”

Genser is also International Counsel to political prisoner and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. He said, “I want my client to be released,” and urged exerting “multilateral internal pressure” for the release of political prisoners, open access to humanitarian aid, addressing the human rights issues and arms embargo.

Panelists delved on Burma ’s potential nuclear capability. Joshua Kurlantzick said if the nuclear North Korea-Burma ties would be the issue, it would be a detriment to the human rights issue.” He is Fellow for Southeast Asia , Council on Foreign Relations and author of “Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World.”

State Department official Kurt Campbell said in the press conference: “We’ve stated very carefully and clearly on the record that we are primarily concerned in terms of Burma activities about its violation and its activities associated with UN Security Council Resolution 1874. We continue to ask for adherence to that important resolution and we are asking for the government to put in place a process which allows for greater transparency for various interactions with North Korea .”

Asian Studies Center Director Walter Lohman of the Heritage Foundation said: “The Obama Administration’s Burma policy has maintained the full range of sanctions imposed by its predecessors, albeit with an accelerated pace and level of interaction with the junta-backed government. Even by the administration’s own assessments, however, the combination of sanctions and engagement has had no discernable impact on the regime’s behavior.”

Panelist Joshua Kurlantzick observed that “ U.S. policy needs to go beyond dialogues or sanctions, or both.” He also said as leverage, U.S. can point out to China that instability in Burma “has the potential to destabilize China .”