Obama returns to a reforming Burma but many old tensions remain It has been two years since Barack Obama last set foot in Burma, a move that made him the first US head of state to visit the nation. But much has changed since then. Media censorship has been relaxed, once-jailed dissidents have been allowed to stand in office, certain industries have been privatised and political prisoners have been freed. The change is, perhaps, seen best in Rangoon, Burma's former capital, where a slew of hotels have sprung up, property prices have skyrocketed, traffic jams snake around the city and office buildings charge higher rents than Manhattan. But for many local and international rights groups - and even politicians - Burma has barely changed at all. Eleven reform promises were made in 2012, when President Thein Sein vowed to combat human trafficking, negotiate ceasefires with rebel ethnic groups and address the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine state, where more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled amid fears of persecution. Nearly all of those pledges have either stalled or remained unfulfilled. Rights groups point to the Burmese government, which is nominally civilian after five decades of junta rule, being allegedly complicit in the trafficking and smuggling of Rohingya asylum seekers, according to a recent report by Fortify Rights. They add that extrajudicial killings, rape and abuses have continued; journalists and activists have been jailed; and a war rages in Kachin state - ethnic Shan leaders claim Burmese troops have tortured and killed villagers since a ceasefire was signed in 2012. Thein Sein greets Barack Obama at the presidential palace. The US president has raised concerns over Burma's "backsliding" reforms. Photograph: AFP/Getty In Burma, as part of his "pivot tour," a foreign policy attempt to counter China's dominance across the region, Obama is expected to raise these issues with Thein Sein when they meet to discuss political progress after the regional summit concludes in the Burmese capital, Naypyitaw, on Thursday. He will also meet pro-democracy veteran Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent nearly two decades under house arrest, and is now an MP and opposition leader. She has been campaigning to change the constitution to limit the military's power - and potentially allow herself to stand for president (a clause bars anyone with a foreign husband or foreign-born children, to hold office). Yet she too has been largely silent on most of these issues, despite railing that Thein Sein's promised reforms have been stalling for the past two years. Observers have called on Obama to stress the significance of Burma's seeming lack of progress, with some even calling for the US to reinstitute sanctions, many of which were lifted after Thein Sein promised a move towards more democratic governance. Many analysts believe the US acted too soon to lift sanctions that largely crippled Burma, a move based on the goodwill of a government that had issued promises, but not proof, of its intentions. UK PM David Cameron with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been campaigning to change the constitution to limit the military's power Photograph: AP Even US agencies have issued stark warnings of the potential problems ahead. "The political reform process in Burma is at great risk of deteriorating if religious freedom and the right to equal treatment under the law are not honoured and protected," the US commission on international religious freedom wrote in a report after visiting Rohingya camps in Rakhine state, where 140,000 people live in squalid conditions after continued persecution by Buddhist extremists. While Obama can express worry about the "backsliding" from reforms, question government policy that further persecutes the Rohingya instead of protects them and stress that the US hopes to see the state "stay on track," in reality there is little that he can expect from Burma, say experts. The military, which holds a quarter of all parliamentary seats, has full veto power, and if Obama pushes Thein Sein too hard, he would thrust the "reformist" president into a corner, says south-east Asia expert Carl Thayer. There are limits to Thein Sein's power to overcome the resistance of entrenched military interests. The [US]president should focus on specific issues and raise suggestions that are practical and doable in the [Burma] context. The Burmese government, however, has defended its political progress, telling reporters at the regional summit that some observers believe "our reforms are happening too fast."