US Secretary in Thailand renews call for democracy in Myanmar
Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) Secretary Rice's visit to Thailand provided her with an opportunity to renew pressures on Myanmar to become more democratic. Her visit was part of a tour in South-East Asia to look at the area hit by a tsunami seven months ago.
Myanmar is scheduled to take over the chairmanship of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a prospect that does not please Washington.
"I have asked that our Thai friends who have relations with Burma and dialogue with Burma to continue to press the case of those who are held, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to press the Burmese toward a more open society," she said.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace laureate and leader of the National League for Democracy, has been under house arrest for the past 15 years in Myanmar's capital of Yangôn.
Ms Rice, who visited the tsunami-devastated tourist resort of Phuket Island, met Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon.
Like her US counterpart, Mr Suphamongkhon said: "We do want to see democracy and the national reconciliation process completed in Burma as soon as possible."
The next ASEAN summit will take place in Laos but for the first time a US Secretary of State won't be present, officially because Ms Rice had a schedule conflict.
She said instead that the United States would be represented at the ASEAN Regional Forum, which will also be attended by China, North and South Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan and the European Community, by her deputy, Robert Zoellick.
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31/07/2007
