UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed talks between Myanmar’s president and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, calling on both sides to build on the tentative improvement in relations.
Ban is “encouraged” by Friday’s meeting, the highest level dialogue between the Nobel laureate and the authorities since her release from seven years of house arrest in November, according to a statement received Tuesday.
The UN chief “expects the meeting to be followed by further steps towards a sustained high-level dialogue focused on national reconciliation.
“Whether these and other recent developments will move Myanmar forward depends on how all parties choose to work with each other,” the UN said. “It is in the national interest that they seize the opportunity to extend and accept conciliatory gestures to achieve durable peace and unity.”
Suu Kyi was released from detention just days after November elections that were marred by cheating and the absence of her party.
Her meeting with President Thein Sein, a former general who took power in March, came amid signs that the Myanmar regime is seeking to improve its image by reaching out to critics.
But more concrete reforms — such as the release of around 2,000 political prisoners and improved rights and freedoms within Myanmar — remain elusive.
“The secretary-general reiterates his call for the release of political prisoners as a matter of priority, so that all citizens of Myanmar are able to contribute to advancing the prospects of national reconciliation and democratic transition in their country,” the UN statement said.
Myanmar has permitted UN rights envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana to visit this week for the first time in more than a year, in another apparent softening of its stance.
Quintana has been a vocal critic of Myanmar’s rulers, enraging the generals after his last trip by suggesting that human rights violations in the country may amount to crimes against humanity and could warrant a UN inquiry.
