PEOPLES DAILY, WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2012
PAGE 33
UN chief holds talks with Suu Kyi in Myanmar
U
N secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has met with Myanmar prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for talks about the country's political future after a surprise climb down by the Nobel laureate in her boycott of parliament. The discussions at the opposition leader's lakeside mansion in Yangon yesterday, where she was locked up by the former military junta for much of the past two decades, came a day after Ban became the first visiting foreign dignitary to address Myanmar's legislature. It is the first meeting between Suu Kyi and Ban, who left frustrated after a previous visit in 2009 when the generals who ruled the nation for decades refused to allow him to see the veteran activist while in detention. On Monday, Suu Kyi decided that she and other politicians in her National League for
Democracy (NLD) party would attend the country's parliament on Wednesday for the first time to take the oath of office. NLD politicians had refused to pledge to "safeguard" the constitution, stating they wanted that word replaced with "respect," a change made in other Myanmar laws. "We have decided to comply at this juncture, because we do not want a political problem or tension," Suu Kyi said, ending the first rift with the government since she won a parliamentary seat in historic April 1 by-elections. "The reason we accept it, firstly is the desire of the people," she said. "Our voters voted for us because they want to see us in parliament." Ban welcomed Suu Kyi's announcement and told reporters he respected her decision. "She is a strong and
dedicated leader of this country," he said, standing by Suu Kyi's side at a newsconference after their meeting. "I'm sure that she'll play a very constructive and active role as a parliamentarian." The UN chief said he had invited Suu Kyi to visit the UN headquarters in New York. Suu Kyi has said one of her priorities as a politician is to push for an amendment of the 2008 constitution, under which one quarter of the seats in parliament are reserved for unelected military officials. On Monday, following talks with President Thein Sein, the UN chief had paid tribute to Suu Kyi and the NLD for participating in the recent byelections during a landmark speech to parliament. "For many years you displayed resilience and fortitude that for generations have distinguished the Myanmar people," he said.
Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, left, met with Myanmar president Thein Sein yesterday
Anti-Syrian regime mourners shout slogans and carry the body of activist Nour al-Zahraa, 23, who was shot by Syrian security forces on Sunday, during his funeral procession, in the Kfar Suseh area, in Damascus, Syria, on Monday.
Ban also hailed the "vision, leadership and courage" of Thein Sein, who has ushered in a slew of reforms in the last year including welcoming Suu Kyi's party into the mainstream and freeing political prisoners. Ban is the latest in a string of top foreign visitors to Myanmar amid a thaw in the army-dominated nation's relations with the West. The UN chief welcomed moves by the international community to reward sweeping changes in the country since the end of direct army rule last year, and called for the West to go further in
easing or lifting sanctions. Last week, the European Union responded to what it said were "historic changes" by suspending for one year a wide range of trade, economic and individual sanctions, although it left intact an arms embargo. Canada and Australia have also recently eased punitive measures and Japan waived $3.7bn of Myanmar's debt. But the US last week ruled out an immediate end to its main sanctions on Myanmar, saying it wanted to preserve leverage to push the leadership on an end to ethnic violence, which has marred the country's reform image.
Syria violence kills 23 despite UN-monitored truce
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iolence erupted in two Syrian provinces on Tuesday, with a rights group reporting 10 civilians dead in an army mortar attack and 12 soldiers killed in a firefight with rebel gunmen as UN monitors sought to shore up a shaky cease-fire. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the 13month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad, said nine members of one family died in mortar bomb blasts in a village in the northern province of Idlib. An activist on the Turkish border, Tareq Abdelhaq, said 35 people had been wounded and that some were being carried 25 km (15 miles) along mountain tracks to receive emergency treatment in refugee camps dotted along the frontier. "Some are being smuggled over the border to Turkey. They had to carry the wounded and go through the mountains to avoid checkpoints on the road," Abdelhaq said. "One guy died on the way. He was 19 years old and had very bad injuries." In the eastern Deir Al-Zor province, troops hit back with mortar and heavy machine gun fire after losing a dozen of their own to insurgents, killing at least one villager and destroying a school, the antiAssad Observatory added. The United Nations says Syrian forces have killed more than 9,000 people since the uprising began in March 2011. Its special envoy for children in war zones said more than 34 children were believed to have been killed since the UN-backed cease-fire nominally came into force on April 12. Like other Arab revolts against autocratic rulers, Syria's uprising began with peaceful protests but a violent government response has spawned an increasingly bloody insurgency.
Damascus says rebels have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and police, and the speaker of Syria's parliament, Mahmoud Al-Abrach, said outside states backing the insurgency bore responsibility for the bloodshed. "The escalation is continuing and it must be stopped from the outside - I mean those who are providing those groups with weapons and money," told Reuters Television in Damascus. "They need to stop this." The cease-fire brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan briefly calmed but failed to halt the conflict. Rebels low on funds and ammunition seem to be stepping up a bombing campaign. Explosions blew the fronts off buildings in the northwestern city of Idlib on Monday, killing nine people and wounding 100, including security personnel, according to state television, which blamed the blasts on "terrorist" suicide bombers. Damascus has accused the United Nations of turning a blind eye to rebel cease-fire violations, although SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-Moon condemned the Idlib blasts and a rocket attack on the central bank in the capital as "terrorist bomb attacks." The United Nations now has 30 truce monitors in Syria, a nation of 23 million people, and expects to have 20 more of the planned 300-strong mission on the ground by the end of the week. Their commander, Norway's Major General Robert Mood, has acknowledged his mission could not solve Syria's fundamental problems, but said the security crisis was not insoluble. "We have seen this in many crises before that if you simply keep adding to the violence with more bombs and weapons and more violence, it becomes a circle that is almost impossible to break," he told BBC radio. "We are not in that situation."