Myanmar says its recent democratic reforms are irreversible and promised a prisoner amnesty in the near future.
Myanmar Foreign Minister Wanna Maung Lwin told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that talks last month between Myanmar’s president and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi were intended to put aside differences and find common grounds to cooperate. The minister urged nations to lift economic sanctions.
In November, Myanmar held its first elections in 20 years. The new government is nominally civilian, but it remains dominated by the military, which has ruled since 1962.
Western nations are urging Myanmar to free its more than 2,000 political prisoners and reconcile with Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won elections in 1990, but was barred from taking power. The party boycotted the November poll, saying the rules governing it were unfair.
Wanna Maung Lwin gave no details about the planned amnesty, other than that it would happen “at an appropriate time in the near future.”
“We hope the near future will come very soon,” British Ambassador to the UN Mark Lyall Grant said after a meeting later on Tuesday of the so-called Friends of Myanmar, a group of about 15 interested Western and Asian nations.
In his address, Wanna Maung Lwin referred to a May amnesty granted by Burmese President Thein Sein which he said led to the release of 20,000 prisoners by the end of July.
However, Western nations were disappointed because only a few dozen political detainees were reportedly freed.
Another amnesty could be well-timed. Myanmar is vying to win the support of neighboring governments for its bid to chair ASEAN in 2014. ASEAN leaders may reach a decision at a summit in November.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, whose country currently chairs ASEAN, said that nations attending the Friends of Myanmar meeting had acknowledged recent developments, but “there’s an expectation that there’s more to come.”
While welcoming the government allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to travel the country, Lyall Grant said the Nobel laureate’s National League for Democracy should be allowed to register again as a political party. The British envoy also called for an end to human rights abuses by the Burmese military against the ethnic minority Shan and Kachin.
International human rights groups remain skeptical of the changes in Myanmar and are calling for a UN-led international commission of inquiry into allegations of war crimes.
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