Ban to brief UN Security Council on Burma

by Mizzima News
Monday, 13 July 2009 14:01

New Delhi - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will brief the Security Council on his two-day visit to military-ruled Burma on Monday, according to his spokesperson Michele Montas.

“The Secretary-General will brief the Security Council next Monday, at 10 a.m., on the situation in Myanmar [Burma] and discuss his two- day visit there last week.” The spokesperson was speaking to reporters on Friday.

Ban Ki-moon, on July 3 and 4, undertook his second visit to Burma in a bid to persuade the ruling junta to release detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, currently facing trial on charges of violating her detention law.

Despite meeting the junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe twice, he was denied a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, literally indicating the junta’s unwillingness to accede to his request.

The world body chief reportedly urged Than Shwe and his cabinet to release all political prisoners along with Aung San Suu Kyi, to kick-start the process of national reconciliation by conducting a ‘meaningful’ dialogue with the opposition group led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ban also urged the junta to create a free and transparent atmosphere for the 2010 general elections.

But critics said, the junta, by rejecting Ban’s request to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, has made it clear that it is not willing to implement the kind of changes that the international community has suggested. It will continue in its own way by implementing its seven-step roadmap to democracy.

Ban, following his visit, told reporters in Rangoon that he was ‘deeply disappointed’ over the ruling junta’s refusal to allow him a meeting with the detained opposition leader. But the world body chief was allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy leaders for a mere 10 minutes.

Montas on Friday said, “The Secretary-General has expressed his concerns about the elections and the constitutional reform process in the country, as the NLD has also done.”