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Freeing dissidents seen as vital to Myanmar transition
Mon 18 Feb 2008, 18:43 GMT
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government should free opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners to show it is
serious about the transition to civilian rule, the European Union said on
Monday.
EU foreign ministers noted the generals' February 9 announcement of a
referendum on a new, as yet unfinished, constitution in May to be followed
by a general election in 2010, but warned sanctions could be toughened
without progress on human rights.
The EU tightened sanctions last year after a bloody crackdown in September
on peaceful pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks. The steps
targeted
1,207 firms and expanded visa bans and asset freezes on the country's
military rulers.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner backed the
*****sment of U.N. mediator Ibrahim Gambari that the plans announced by
the
generals were welcome but "do not yet meet all the expectations".
"We would like to see that both the referendum and the ensuing elections
are
steps towards that goal, but they have to be clarified," she told
re****ters
after the meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels.
"The participation of political parties has to be clear, the electoral
law,
the process of free and fair elections itself."
The full participation of the opposition and ethnic groups was vital to
reconciliation and stability and urged a more inclusive political
dialogue.
"This requires of course as one of the major bases of conditions the
release
of Aung San Suu Kyi and of course all the other political prisoners," she
said.
The generals last held elections in 1990, but ignored them when Suu Kyi's
National League for Democracy won by a landslide.
Opposition figures and some Western countries have voiced scepticism that
the junta will be willing to let the opposition compete in the vote or to
relinquish power.
The EU ministers called on the generals to re-admit Gambari and U.N. human
rights expert Sergio Pinheiro. Ferrero-Waldner said it was im****tant
Gambari
be allowed back in to Myanmar before April and have full cooperation from
the authorities.
Gambari last week criticised Myanmar's extension of the house arrest of
top
Suu Kyi ally Tin Oo but said the generals might allow him to visit sooner
than a proposed mid-April date.
(Re****ting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jon Boyle)
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnL1884062.html
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