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Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations sent its human rights envoy to Myanmar for talks on elections scheduled for this year that would be the first in two decades as the military government released an opposition leader from house arrest.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the special envoy for human rights in the country formerly known as Burma, begins a four-day visit today and says he wants to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, who remains in detention.
The junta two days ago freed Tin Oo, the 82-year-old vice chairman of the NLD, ago after seven years in detention. “It is not enough to release me alone,” Agence France-Presse cited him as saying in Yangon yesterday when he visited a Buddhist temple.
Myanmar’s military, which has ruled the country since 1962, plans to hold elections this year under a new constitution. The U.S. and UN are leading calls on the junta to make progress toward democracy and ensure the ballot is not used as a way for the military to maintain power.
This year is “a critical time for the people of Myanmar,” Quintana said last week. “These elections should be fair and transparent. Freedom of speech, movement and association should be guaranteed” and all prisoners of conscience should be released before the ballot, he said. The U.S. says an estimated 2,100 political prisoners in Maynmar should be released before the election.
Suu Kyi, 64, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, had her house arrest order extended for 18 months in August after a court found her guilty of violating her detention terms, a decision that would ensure her being excluded from this year’s elections.
Myanmar’s Supreme Court is currently considering whether to overturn a lower court ruling in October that upheld the extension order.
The authorities allowed Suu Kyi to meet with three senior members of the NLD in December to discuss the elections, the party said at the time. The NLD hasn’t decided whether to take part in the ballot, AFP reported yesterday.
U.S. President Barack Obama is pursuing a policy of engaging with the military leaders while maintaining trade and financial sanctions that are aimed at pressing the junta to make democratic changes in the country of more than 48 million people.
Myanmar has turned to China as an economic partner in recent years with trade between the countries increasing in 2008 by 28 percent to $2.6 billion, 240 times more than the $10.8 million with the U.S. China National Petroleum Corp., the nation’s largest oil company, has started building a 771- kilometer (480 miles) pipeline from Myanmar to Southwest China. Cnooc Ltd., China’s largest offshore oil producer, is exploring for oil in Myanmar.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 14, 2010 19:21 EST
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the special envoy for human rights in the country formerly known as Burma, begins a four-day visit today and says he wants to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy, who remains in detention.
The junta two days ago freed Tin Oo, the 82-year-old vice chairman of the NLD, ago after seven years in detention. “It is not enough to release me alone,” Agence France-Presse cited him as saying in Yangon yesterday when he visited a Buddhist temple.
Myanmar’s military, which has ruled the country since 1962, plans to hold elections this year under a new constitution. The U.S. and UN are leading calls on the junta to make progress toward democracy and ensure the ballot is not used as a way for the military to maintain power.
This year is “a critical time for the people of Myanmar,” Quintana said last week. “These elections should be fair and transparent. Freedom of speech, movement and association should be guaranteed” and all prisoners of conscience should be released before the ballot, he said. The U.S. says an estimated 2,100 political prisoners in Maynmar should be released before the election.
Suu Kyi, 64, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, had her house arrest order extended for 18 months in August after a court found her guilty of violating her detention terms, a decision that would ensure her being excluded from this year’s elections.
Myanmar’s Supreme Court is currently considering whether to overturn a lower court ruling in October that upheld the extension order.
The authorities allowed Suu Kyi to meet with three senior members of the NLD in December to discuss the elections, the party said at the time. The NLD hasn’t decided whether to take part in the ballot, AFP reported yesterday.
U.S. President Barack Obama is pursuing a policy of engaging with the military leaders while maintaining trade and financial sanctions that are aimed at pressing the junta to make democratic changes in the country of more than 48 million people.
Myanmar has turned to China as an economic partner in recent years with trade between the countries increasing in 2008 by 28 percent to $2.6 billion, 240 times more than the $10.8 million with the U.S. China National Petroleum Corp., the nation’s largest oil company, has started building a 771- kilometer (480 miles) pipeline from Myanmar to Southwest China. Cnooc Ltd., China’s largest offshore oil producer, is exploring for oil in Myanmar.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 14, 2010 19:21 EST