Laura Bush: India, China must help on Myanmar Tue Sep 23, 4:55 PM ET

Burmese monk U Kovida (2ndR) speaks with US President George W. Bush (2ndL) and First Lady Laura Bush (C) during a meeting with dissidents on Governor's Island in New York.
(AFP/Jim Watson)

NEW YORK (AFP) - Against the backdrop of the sun-washed Statue of Liberty, US First Lady Laura Bush on Tuesday implored China and India to help push for democratic reforms in military-ruled Myanmar.

"I want to urge all the neighbors of Burma -- China and India and other neighbors -- to continue trying to talk to the Burmese General, Than Shwe, to see if he can't do what all the world, the international community wants him to do," she said.

The junta must "start respecting the rights of the people of Burma, start a real dialogue for a transition to democracy" and talk with opposition leaders including democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, said the US first lady.



"Bring everyone to the table so that the country can start to rebuild and be the country that the people of Burma want," said Bush. Washington does not recognize the country's name change.

Laura Bush spoke as US President George W. Bush met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with critics of the governments of Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea, Myanmar and other countries.

Among them was a monk from Myanmar who helped lead who helped lead massive anti-government protests in September last year, drawing a government crackdown.

At the event in New York, chess legend turned Kremlin critic Garry Kasparov gave the US president his book on chess and leadership, entitled "How Life Imitates Chess."

Other attendees included Lodi Gyari, special envoy of the Dalai Lama; Cuban journalist Omar Pernet Hernandez; and Sang Hak Park, president of "Fighters for Free North Korea," according to the White House.

Other guests included Gameela Ismail, wife of jailed Egyptian opposition leader Ayman Nour; Belarus opposition leader Alexander Kozulin; former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky; and Sierra Leone Foreign Minister Zainab Hawa Bangura.

Radio Caracas Television chief Marcel Granier of Venezuela; Ausama Monajed for the Movement for Justice and Development in Syria; and founder of the outlawed China Democracy Party Xu Wenli also were on hand.