I can't imagine if the UN Chief fail and high chances that he
might not secure the release of Suu Kyi.
Ban warned over Myanmar visit
AFP/Yangon
UN chief Ban Ki-moon prepared yesterday for a risky visit to
Myanmar amid warnings that the trip will be a “huge failure” if he
fails to secure the release of detained opposition leader Aung San
Suu Kyi.
Ban is set to arrive in the military-ruled nation today for a
two-day visit that the UN says will focus on pressing the junta to
free all political prisoners, including the Nobel peace laureate,
who is currently on trial.
He is due to meet junta leader Senior General Than Shwe and members
of opposition parties including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League
for Democracy (NLD), but there are no plans yet for him to meet
her, officials said.
The 64-year-old was transferred from house arrest to prison in May
to face trial on charges of breaching the terms of her detention
after an American man swam to her house. She faces up to five years
in jail if convicted.
Human Rights Watch said Ban should not accept the return of Aung
San Suu Kyi to house arrest, instead of imprisonment, as a sign of
a successful visit.
“Time and again, the UN has politely requested Aung San Suu Kyi’s
release, but her ‘release’ back to house arrest would be a huge
failure,” Kenneth Roth, New York-based HRW’s executive director,
said in a statement.
“Ban Ki-moon has offered Burma’s generals a roadmap to ending their
international isolation... He should make it clear that the time
for stalling and playing games is over and that real change is
needed now,” he added.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in detention or under house arrest for
most of the time since the junta refused to recognise her party’s
landslide victory in Myanmar’s last elections, in 1990.
Her trial is due to resume today, alongside that of US national
John Yettaw, and NLD spokesman Nyan Win said that he would see her
ahead of Ban’s arrival in Myanmar.
“The authorities informed us that five central executive committee
members of the NLD are to meet Mr Ban Ki-moon. We don’t know
details yet,” Nyan Win said.
He said the five did not include Aung San Suu Kyi, despite
declaring earlier this week that any visit by Ban to Myanmar should
include seeing the democracy icon.
Myanmar officials said Ban would meet Than Shwe in the remote
administrative capital Naypyidaw today, as well as with members of
10 political parties including the NLD, before flying back to
Yangon tomorrow.
The visit is Ban’s first to Myanmar since he came to urge the junta
to accept international aid in the wake of devastating Cyclone
Nargis in May 2008, which killed around 138,000 people.
Ban acknowledged this week that the latest trip was diplomatically
risky
if Ban carried with him a few Billions Euro, maybe the junta will
consider, otherwise, they will not entertain anyone, not even the
UN chief, and especially a South Korean one.