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Suu Kyi urges leaders to support ch
- Subject: Suu Kyi urges leaders to support ch
- From: mandalay@xxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 15 Dec 1997 19:33:00
Suu Kyi urges leaders to support change in Burma
Bangkok Post (December 16, 1997)
Burmese pro-democrat leader Aung San Suu Kyi has urged Asean leaders to
support political change in Burma, in a recorded interview released yesterday.
"Without political change I do not think then there will be stability in
Burma nor will there be sustainable economic development," the Nobel Peace
Prize winner told a Bangkok-based human rights group.
The pro-democrat warned that Burma would be a "weak spot" in the Southeast
Asian region unless there was political change to bring stability to the
IN the interview, recorded in Rangoon and made available by the Alternative
Asean Network on Burma, Mrs Suu Kyi said she believed some Asean states
sympathised with her call for a democratic government in the military state.
"I would think that people of the Asean countries are sympathetic and that
they do want to see a government in Burma that is accountable and that has
the support of our people," she said.
"As for the governments of Asean I think that some of them do understand
that Burma is in need of political change that we cannot just go on like
Mrs Suu Kyi said her October meeting with Philippine Foreign Secretary
Domingo Siazon was a "sign of progress".
Meanwhile, Malaysia said late on Sunday that Burma has no "automatic right
to join in the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) forum, in what is seen as a
turnaround from Kuala Lumpur's earlier insistence that Rnagoon be invited
to next year's summit between the two continents.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Asem parley was
not a "region-to-region" meeting which would have required Burma's
participation since it became an Asean menber in July.