UN, West pressure Myanmar for change from within

UN, West pressure Myanmar for change from within
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that elections in Myanmar must be free and fair, amid mounting concerns that they won't be.

By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS —
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that elections in Myanmar must be free and fair, amid mounting concerns that they won't be.

"We need to work more for the democratization of Myanmar," Ban told a press conference in Oslo, Norway, with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. "This election in 2010 must be a fair and credible and inclusive one."

Ban said he was working hard to keep the pressure on General Than Shwe and other of Myanmar's leaders to live up to their commitments to hold legitimate elections in 2010. At a minimum, the U.N. wants Suu Kyi and 2,000 other political prisoners released. A transcript of Ban's remarks were made available at the U.N. in New York.

Than Shwe has resisted U.N. demands to open up democratically, ignoring four Security Council statements and direct entreaties by Ban and a top envoy. Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years since her pro-democracy party won in the polls but was denied power.

Myanmar's government has given no indication it will release her or the 200 political prisoners that Ibrahim Gambari, Ban's top envoy, told The Associated Press he expected would be freed after Ban's most recent trip.

Western and U.N. diplomats increasingly view Myanmar as intent on holding staged elections to enshrine its military dictatorship next year, with few other than the government or neighboring China able to steer an alternate course.

"It's the Burmese leadership that have to take the decision to move forward, rather than to keep their country held back in a state of lack of freedom, military regime and an environment in which there's going to be very little international investment," British Ambassador John Sawers said in an AP interview.

China and Russia, two of Myanmar's main weapons suppliers and trading partners, oppose the idea of a U.N.-backed international arms embargo, and they also blocked the council from making anything more than a tepid protest of Suu Kyi's return to house arrest on Aug. 11.