Myanmar's unturned page

[TriSec]

or, as Bush fiddles with Iraq, other parts of the world languish.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/05/opinion/edburma.php

The United Nations was created to foster a peaceful international order built upon a foundation of collective security. It is because of the grandeur of that ideal that the UN's habitual failure to protect the victims of murderous regimes in Cambodia, Rwanda and Sudan is so disillusioning. And sad to say, those tragic failures of the past are being reenacted today as senior UN officials and members of the UN Security Council acquiesce in the despotic brutality of the illegitimate military junta that rules Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

On a visit last month to Myanmar, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's top deputy, Undersecretary General Ibrahim Gambari, raised hopes for progress toward a restoration of democracy and national reconciliation. Gambari was allowed to meet with the Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, imprisoned in her own house, and the leader of the junta, General Than Shwe. Gambari reported that the general is ready "to turn a new page in relations with the international community."

If Than Shwe intended to turn a new page, he would start by releasing Suu Kyi, who has been imprisoned for more than 10 of the past 17 years and whose party won 80 percent of seats in Parliament in a 1990 election the junta refused to honor. He would also release the 1,100 other political prisoners. He would open a genuine political dialogue with Suu Kyi and her party, proceeding to the democratization that the Burmese people desperately need.

But no new page was turned. After Gambari's visit, the junta announced that Suu Kyi's confinement would continue for another year.