Myanmar's military government says it bears no grudge toward opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as allies China and Malaysia cautioned the world against pressuring the generals into giving up power.
The semi-official Myanmar Times weekly quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win as saying the junta will do everything it can to achieve reconciliation with Suu Kyi, who has been detained since May 30 following deadly clashes between her supporters and a pro-government mob in northern Myanmar.
The incident has put diplomatic heat on the junta and prompted widespread demands for the Nobel Peace laureate's immediate release.
Washington has announced it supports more sanctions against Myanmar, and US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday referred to the junta as "thugs." The UN, meanwhile, is pressing for a resumption of dialogue between Suu Kyi and the regime to end the political deadlock in the country.
Khin Maung Win urged "the international community not to further complicate the prevailing situation in the country," said the Myanmar-language Myanmar Times, which went on sale Thursday.
The government "will systematically work towards achieving national reconciliation and for a democratic reform," it quoted him as saying in a meeting with foreign diplomats.
"The government bears no grudge or animosity towards Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," Khin Maung Aye was quoted as saying. Daw is an honorific.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962. The current junta, which came to power in 1988 as a transitional authority, refused to honor the 1990 elections that gave Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy an overwhelming victory.
A slow-moving national reconciliation process started by UN envoy Razali Ismail in October 2000 came to a standstill after the arrest of Suu Kyi and the clashes, which critics say were orchestrated by the junta and caused at least four deaths.
Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado except for a brief meeting with Razali when the Malaysian diplomat visited the country last week on an unsuccessful mission to secure her release.
The junta says her detention is "temporary" but has not said when she will be released despite growing international pressure.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, one of the staunchest allies of the generals, said he still believes that the junta should be persuaded rather than pressured into bringing change.
"It is not very constructive if we keep on pressing people. Whenever they comply with something there is no reward; if they do something else, more pressure is applied. It is unproductive," he told reporters Thursday.
China, another ally, also reiterated its long-standing policy of nonintervention.
"We believe that the Myanmar people are capable of handling well their own issues and we sincerely hope that Myanmar will maintain political stability and economic development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in Beijing.
In a commentary in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Powell said: "It is time for the United States to reassess its policy toward a military dictatorship that has repeatedly attacked democracy and jailed its heroes."
Powell said he would turn to ministers attending next week's ASEAN meeting in Cambodia to do the same, "despite their traditional reticence to confront a member and neighbor of their association." Myanmar is one of the 10 members of ASEAN.
He suggested a ban on remittances to Myanmar so the government could not benefit from foreign exchange and freezing assets of the junta.
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