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Myanmar trip failed to yield concrete results: UN envoyNew York, Feb 21, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- The UN Secretary-General special envoy to Myanmar has informed the UNSC that his last visit to the military-ruled country, fifth in past five and half years, failed to yield any concrete results. The admission of failure by Ibrahim Gambari came during a briefing of the Security Council. Gambari is trying to revive the process of reconciliation and democratisation in the country, but so far the military Junta has shown little interest in it. "I informed the UNSC that, so far, we have not seen any tangible outcomes of my visit," he told reporters after a closed-door briefing of the 15-member body. "But there seems to be some movement," added the envoy, who was in Myanmar most recently from January 31 to February 3 as part of the good offices mandate entrusted to the Secretary-General by the General Assembly. During the visit, Gambari met with government officials including Prime Minister Thein Sein, as well as opposition and other political parties, including detained pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and members of her National League for Democracy (NLD). Suu Kyi had reportedly questioned the usefulness of his visits as they failed to produce any result. "As I told the government, now is the time to demonstrate Myanmar's commitment to address concretely the issues of concern to the international community, particularly the release of political prisoners and the resumption of dialogues between the government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," Gambari stated. The Myanmar government has reportedly announced that it will free some 6,000 prisoners beginning today, but Gambari said he has not received any official communication on this from the authorities and is waiting to see who is among those that will be released. "At the same time, I believe it's fair to welcome the release of prisoners, particularly political prisoners," he said. Last year, the government had said that it will hold multi-party elections in 2010. Both Ban and his Special Adviser have repeatedly said that it's in Myanmar's interest to ensure that the elections are as credible and inclusive as possible and to engage without delay in dialogue with Suu Kyi. "Our position has not changed. We're not advocating elections in 2010 or any time. It is up to the government and people of Myanmar to decide but we continue to advocate conditions that are conducive to free and fair elections when they do take place," said Gambari. |