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Myanmar Should Agree on Change Timetable, UN Says

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By Michael Heath

Bloomberg
November 13, 2007

Myanmar's military rulers should agree on a timetable for political change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, after his envoy returned from meetings with government and opposition leaders in the Southeast Asian nation. "A process has been launched that will hopefully lead to a meaningful and substantive dialogue with concrete outcomes within an agreed timeframe," Ban said yesterday, according to the UN Web site. Ibrahim Gambari arrived in New York after a week in Myanmar, his second visit to the country in two months.

Ban spoke as UN human rights envoy Sergio Pinheiro was in Myanmar's former capital, Yangon, to investigate the junta's suppression in September of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in almost 20 years. China, which helped to arrange some of Gambari's meetings in Rangoon, refused to acknowledge the need for a timetable for political change. ``I don't know what kind of timetable the secretary-general was talking about,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a regular briefing in Beijing today. The crackdown, which resulted in the deaths of as many as 110 people, prompted global condemnation of the military that has ruled the country formerly known as Burma for the past 45 years.

Prison Visit

Pinheiro yesterday visited Insein prison, where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was held after being detained in 2003. Journalist Win Tin, an adviser to Suu Kyi, and Min Ko Naing, who led pro-democracy protests in 1988 and was arrested in August, are held there, Agence France-Presse reported. Pinheiro "is expecting to interview detainees before the end of his mission," the UN said in a statement.

The envoy also traveled to monasteries yesterday to talk with Buddhist monks who led the anti-government demonstrations. The protests were sparked in mid-August by the doubling of some fuel prices in the country. Pinheiro, who was barred from Myanmar in 2003 after he accused the regime of eavesdropping on an interview with a detainee, visits the capital, Naypyidaw, today.

The military has been under international sanctions since it rejected the results of elections in 1990 won by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party. Suu Kyi, 62, has spent 12 years detention since then.

Met Suu Kyi

International demands for the junta to start talks with the opposition after September's crackdown resulted in Labor Minister U Aung Kyi being put in charge of discussions. He met with Suu Kyi last month. Gambari, who had talks with Suu Kyi last week, said after leaving Myanmar that the opposition leader will work with the junta to seek a path toward political reconciliation. She remains under house arrest at her home in Yangon.

``In the interest of the nation, I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success,'' Suu Kyi said in a statement read by Gambari in Singapore on Nov. 9. In the message read by Gambari, Suu Kyi said the Oct. 25 meeting with the labor minister was ``constructive.'' ``We believe Mr. Gambari's visit was successful and showed progress,'' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu said. ``We will continue to cooperate with the UN in pushing for progress.''

Gem Trade

China, Thailand, the U.S. and other countries should block the purchase of gems from Myanmar because their sale helps finance abuses in the country, Human Rights Watch said yesterday. The New York-based group called for sanctions on Myanmar's gem trade before an auction in Yangon this week. More than 90 percent of the world's rubies originate in Myanmar, it said.

``Burma's rubies and jade are prized for their beauty but the ugly truth is that the trade in these stones supports human rights abuses,'' said Arvind Ganesan, director of the group's Business and Human Rights Program. ``The sale of these gems gives Burma's military rulers quick cash to stay in power.''

The junta controls most mining activity in the country, according to the group. The gem auction is the first since the junta crushed the protests. ``It was twice postponed, purportedly due to weather conditions,'' Human Rights Watch said in the statement. ``Ongoing unrest and strong international condemnation of the regime may have raised fears that few traders would attend.''

 

 

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