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'This is one of the issues I intend to discuss with the authorities in Myanmar,' Dr Gambari told reporters. -- PHOTO: AFP
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JAKARTA - A TOP UN envoy said on Thursday he hoped to visit Myanmar in early March for talks that will include the military government's decision to bar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting planned elections.
Dr Ibrahim Gambari made the comments in the Indonesian capital, his latest stop in a tour of Asian countries seeking their help in pressing for democratic reform in military-ruled Myanmar.
Earlier this month, Myanmar said it will hold a May referendum on a constitution written under military guidance, and will conduct multiparty elections by 2010 - the first specific dates for steps in an earlier-announced 'roadmap to democracy.'
The plans have been widely criticised for failing to include any input from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy.
Under the plans, Ms Suu Kyi would not be allowed to contest the vote because she once was married to a foreign citizen - her late British husband, Michael Aris - and enjoyed the privileges of a foreign national.
'This is one of the issues I intend to discuss with the authorities in Myanmar,' Dr Gambari told reporters. 'They are in the process of inviting me to return to Myanmar, hopefully in the first week of March.'
Thai FM welcomes upcoming UN envoy to Myanmar
Thailand on Thursday welcomed the upcoming visit to Myanmar by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
'We support the UN envoy's visit to Myanmar in early March. It is a good thing he travels to Myanmar,' Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama told reporters via a teleconference from Singapore.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries 'still had hopes' Ms Suu Kyi would be allowed to run in the elections. He did not elaborate.
Myanmar's Foreign Minister Nyan Win told a regional gathering in Singapore this week that the constitution would bar the 62-year-old democracy leader and Nobel peace prize winner from running in elections.
Mr Nyan Win said the new charter bans a Myanmar citizen married to a foreigner from running for elections. Aung San Suu Kyi was married to Michael Aris, a British academic who died of cancer in 1999.
If held, the elections would be the first since 1990, when Aung San Suu Kyi's party scored a landslide victory in 1990 polls - a win the junta never recognised.
The United States, a vocal critic of Myanmar, on Wednesday called the new constitution a failure since it banned Aung San Suu Kyi from running. -- AP, AFP
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