Opposition Welcomes Ban’s Call for Burma Talks -IRRAWADDY

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=15072

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By WAI MOE Friday, February 6, 2009

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Burma’s opposition welcomed United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call to resume substantive talks between the Burmese military junta and the political opposition for national reconciliation.

Nyan Win, a spokesperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD), told The Irrawaddy on Friday that the party appreciated Ban’s urgency, but he said, “This kind of statement is usual for the UN.”.

Direct talks between the regime and the opposition are needed, he said, if a solution is to be found for the country’s political deadlock.

The NLD spokesperson’s comment came following Ban Ki-moon’s statement on Thursday, following a briefing by the UN Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

“The Secretary-General looks forward to building on this visit with a view to further promoting national dialogue and reconciliation through his good offices,” said the secretary general's spokesperson, Michele Montas.

“The Secretary-General calls on the government and opposition to resume substantive dialogue without preconditions and without further delay.”

The statement was almost verbatim similar statements repeatedly issued by the secretary-general and other UN spokespeople during the past year.

Aye Thar Aung, an Arakan leader and secretary of an umbrella opposition group, the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament, said he was glad the UN repeated its call to hold meaningful dialogue talks.

“Genuine dialogue is the best way to resolve Burma’s political crisis,” he said.

However, Aye Thar Aung said realistically the chance of a meaningful dialogue is still impossible because of the current political environment in the country, exacerbated by scores of arrests of political activists and harsh prison sentences during the past few months.





“The military junta does not listen and respect the UN,” he said. “They just use the UN to buy time. They do not have the political will to hold a dialogue with the opposition.”

He said that if the junta failed to hold talks with the opposition, the UN secretary-general should push to take up the Burma issue in the UN Security Council.

On Thursday, in India’s capital, New Delhi, where Ban attended a sustainable development summit, UN Special Envoy to Burma Ibrahim Gambari briefed Ban Ki-moon on his recent seventh trip to Burma, which produced no meaningful results.

Meanwhile, India’s vice president, Shri M. Hamid Ansari, is visiting Burma for a four-day trip. The Indian delegation was welcomed by the junta’s No 2, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, according to the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

On the vice president’s arrival, Burma and India signed three agreements in Naypyidaw involving bilateral investments and exchange notes; the opening of an English-language training center at the Indian Embassy in Rangoon; and the creation of an industrial training center in Pakkokku Township in central Burma.

Correspondent Lalit K Jha contributed reporting from Washington D.C.