Press Conference - UNITED NATIONS on Burma

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Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Michael Stipe of R_E_M_

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Department of Public
Information-News and Media Division-New York

5 Sept. 2007

Speaking to correspondents at the
Headquarters press conference this morning, Ibrahim Gambari,
reiterated, on the Secretary-General's behalf, the call on Myanmar's
authorities to release political detainees,including those arrested
during recent peaceful demostrations.

Mr. Gambari said that recent disturbing
events in Myanmar were all the more disappointing as they not only
called into question the authorities' stated committement to
democratization and national reconciliation, but also made it more
difficult to maintain international support for engagement with
Myanmar at the time when the country needed assistance in addressing
numerous pressing challenges...

He said that the United Nations was the
only international actor to maintain face-to-face dialogue with
Myanmar's top leadership and with Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's
detained opposition leader, about the need for national
reconciliation, democracy and respect for human rights and was keenly
aware of its responsibility and expectations riding on it.

As to how the Organization's current
efforts were different from those of his predecessors, he said that
the United Nations was moving to line up support from the
international community, recognizing that all key interested
countries needed to work together. The initial consultations that he
had been involved in were now complete, following his visits to
Washington,DC, Beijing, New Delhi, Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, the European
Union in Brussels, and London, as well as neighbouring countries,
whose role was critical.

Everywhere, his interlocutors had
expressed concern about the situation in Myanmar and strong support
for the Secretary-General's good offices. They also expressed a
readiness to pro actively consider ways of working with one another,
Myanmar and the United Nations to get concrete results. Thus, for
the first time, all the key-actors were now mobilized and the
international community was moving in a single direction.

Given the complexity of the situation
and the diversity of the challenges in Myanmar, the Organization was
now taking a more comprehensive approach, he continued. Its focus
would be such as the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners, the cessation of hostilities, humanitarian access and
progress in implementing the Millennium Development Goals,
particularly in the areas of education and health. The broader the
agenda, he added, the higher the likelihood of finding common ground
“in order to make progress where progress can be made and
demonstrated”. The Government's agreement with the International
Labour Organization (ILO) in February to address a forced labour
complaint was a good example of what could be done when the
authorities in Myanmar engaged seriously with the United Nations in
addressing a pressing concern.

There was also certainly a greater
openness to the United Nations across a range of other topics, which

had been seen during his own two visits
to the country in the past year, as well as those of the Deputy
Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and a June visit by Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed
Conflict.

While serious changes were needed, only
very modest steps had been taken on certain “big-ticket issues”,
and he was not going to proclaim otherwise he said.

At the same time, it was important to
keep in mind that, for almost three years, there had been no opening
at all for dialogue between the international community and
Myanmar....his own next step would be to return to Myanmar as soon as
possible to continue conversation with key-players and deliver the
Secretary-General's message as his Special Envoy to the country.

He expected that rip to take place some
time in mid-October.

In conclusion, he said that, with all
his interlocutors, he had emphasized that good offices were not an
event, but a process, which needed to be translated into tangible
results on multiple fronts. The expectations of the United Nations
and the international community were very clear and required concrete
results fron Myanmar, and he would continue to carry that message.

Asked about the position of China, he
said that he was not prepared to share what the Chinese had said
privately, but he knew that they had facilitated contact and
communication between the United States and Myanmar. In expressing
their support for good offices of the secretary-General, they had
also sent an appropriate message to the authorities of Myanmar to
cooperate fully with them and to help ensure that the next visit
would produce results...

Asked if the United Nations was the
right venue for dealing with human rights issues in Myanmar, he said
that isolation and sanctions had not worked so far, and the Security
Council might not have worked, but that did not mean that Security
Council action might not be helpful. The Secretary-General had a role
under the mandate from the General Assembly to find ways of building
international support for his action, so that the authorities would
address the issues he had mentioned.

Those efforts should be given a chance,
because those countries that had voted against a resolution of the
Security council, while recognising there were problems in Myanmar,
did not think that the Security council was the appropriate forum to
act on them...

A correspondent commented said that
there appeared to be two Myanmars in the world: one where the human
rights situation was atrocious and the one that Mr. Gambari was
describing.

He wondered if it was Mr. Gambari's
role to be “a chief international apologist for the system” that
allowed Myanmar to continue along its line at the moment.

In response Mr. Gambari said that there
was no question of apologies for any regime. He had described
precisely what the Secretary-General was doing, what were the limits
of his authority, what were the limits of the tools available to him.
Within that, it was important to continue the best efforts to bring
about concrete results. “ How do you bring about change in the
attitude of a regime?”he asked in that connection.

“You can either change the regime,
which is not an option available to us, or achieve change...by
allowing international forces, particularly those that have influence
on the regime, to bring it to be, and we have decided to take the
second option.”

What can we do to pressure
international concrete results?

Monks and nuns have started a process ,
process which is already “History”. Do not leave them alone, let
us be creative in taking steps to help the process of freedom.

We can move mountains if we work
together, we are in a very important period of human history. Each of
us has a huge role in improving human conditions all over this
planet.

Let's move with Love and Light.

Leni
provides a large variety of astrological services, workshops,
readings and is an accomplished lecturer and writer, in both English
and Italian. She has appear on television and radio, and is much in
demand for the both traditional and soul centered astrology.

Leni
Sibilio

http://.astrominds.com

leni@astrominds.com