Share this story!            

US hopes Myanmar junta will open talks with opposition

WASHINGTON The United States hopes Myanmar’s military junta, which allowed a rare opposition leadership meeting, would itself hold talks with the National League for Democracy, the State Department said on Friday.

The junta arranged two meetings this week between the NLD’s executive committee and party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

The meeting comes ahead of a constituent assembly to frame a new constitution.

NLD vice-chairman deputy Tin Oo, also under house arrest, was taken to the meeting ahead of the constitutional convention on May 17, the first step in the military regime’s “roadmap to democracy.” “We welcome the report that all of the National League for Democracy central executive committee has had a chance to discuss the national convention,” state department spokesman Kurtis Cooper told AFP.

“Now we hope that the junta will engage in substantive dialogue with the National League for Democracy and react positively to their ideas,” he said.

NLD secretary U Lwin said Friday that the party had submitted to the junta a set of proposals after their meeting, including procedures under which the convention will be run and the need for “free and open discussions”.

“We have been assured that they would consider our suggestions positively,” U Lwin said, adding that the NLD was more or less certain it would attend the forum.

U Lwin had said that if the party’s proposals were accepted and if the NLD attended the convention, he expected Aung San Suu Kyi to be freed before May 17.

Myanmar’s democracy icon and the rest of her party’s leadership were detained during political unrest a year ago. Since then, most have been freed.

Hopes were high that Aung San Suu Kyi would be freed before the convention, but faded in recent weeks as the political atmosphere in Yangon grew tense.

Cooper said that the United States had consistently called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Tin Oo and other political prisoners and for the reopening of the NLD offices nationwide and a timetable for democratization.

“We have also urged that the democratic opposition and ethnic groups be allowed to participate in planning for the national convention, which should allow for free expression of views,” he said.

U Lwin has said that relations between the NLD and the government had improved and that the NLD would continue to push for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.

The convention is expected to assemble government, political party and ethnic representatives.

An earlier convention collapsed in 1995 when the NLD walked out. Analysts have said the revived forum would have no credibility without the involvement of the NLD. afp

Home | Foreign

Share this story!