EBO “
News Summary:
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1. Pressure must be maintained for change
in
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Pressure must be maintained for
change in Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi
international pressure should be maintained to force
military-ruled
move towards democracy, a fellow Nobel peace
laureate who met her said
Wednesday.
Jody Williams, 1997 Nobel peace prize
winner and a campaigner against
landmines, visited Aung San Suu Kyi in
messages of support from other laureates, a
statement released here said.
Aung San Suu Kyi, herself a Nobel peace
laureate, said at their meeting
that the ruling State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) would have to
engage in dialogue with other groups in
statement from the Nonviolence
International Southeast Asia organisation said.
"There is no way for the SPDC to
escape dialogue if we want to achieve a
peaceful transition," Aung San Suu Kyi was
quoted as saying.
Williams said: "Outside of the
country there is the usual debate about
whether outside pressure helps or hinders the
dialogue process.
"On this point Suu Kyi was very clear
that pressure both inside and outside
the country are critical to bringing about
democracy in
noted that such pressure has already made a
difference."
Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National
League for Democracy (NLD), was
released from 19 months of house arrest in May.
Her party won general
elections held in 1990, but the military government
refused to recognise the
result.
"Despite numerous competing demands
for the international community's
attention, and even though Suu Kyi has been freed
from house arrest, the
policy of her party remains unchanged: the time
is not right for foreign
investment, lifting of sanctions nor tourism in
"The time will be right when there is
meaningful dialogue which moves
forward the process of democratisation in
Aung San Suu Kyi was optimistic for the
future of her country, it added.
"She stated that the struggle has
gone on for too long, and that the people
of
that democracy will prevail," it said.
The statement also noted the increasing
number of landmine victims in
ethnic rebels has resulted in the planting of
landmines.
"Victims are claimed by an increasing
number each year and more land is
polluted by landmines laid by all sides in the
armed conflict which continues
in the border areas of the country,"
the statement said.
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