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Elders leave empty chair as Aung San Suu Kyi turns 65
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Elders leave empty chair as Aung San Suu Kyi turns 65
AFP - Friday, June 18
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Elders leave empty chair as Aung San Suu Kyi turns 65
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - – A group of global statesmen founded by Nelson Mandela urged Myanmar's neighbours Thursday to boost pressure on the reclusive state, to mark democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi's 65th birthday.
The Elders, who include former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, ex US president Jimmy Carter and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, made the appeal after leaving a seat symbolically empty for Aung Sang Suu Kyi at a meeting in South Africa.
Elections are planned in the southeast Asian country for the end of this year, but critics have dismissed them as a sham due to laws that have effectively barred Aung San Suu Kyi from participating.
"National processes in Burma have been usurped by the military government -- they do not serve the people. The elections due later this year will not be any different," said Elders chairman Tutu.
"With such deep fractures in society, the country needs an avenue for dialogue. Without a way to talk and reconcile with one another, the people will never achieve the peace and prosperity they deserve," he added.
At a recent meeting in Johannesburg, the Elders kept an empty chair draped in Burmese silk to symbolise the absence of "Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's thousands of political prisoners."
Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, was dissolved last month after refusing to re-register as a political party, a move that would have forced it to expel its own leader because she is serving a prison term.
Former Finnish president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari said Myanmar's neighbours and partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should also help put pressure on the military junta.
"Neighbouring countries have already experienced the effects of conflict in border areas and have the greatest interest in trying to prevent future instability," he said.
"The international community should also make every effort to help Burma/Myanmars divided peoples to find a peaceful and prosperous way forward," he added.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who will be 65 on Saturday, "is a global symbol of moral courage in the face of repression," said Carter.
"As she spends yet another year in captivity, we urge the world, and especially Burma/Myanmars partners in ASEAN, to recognise that it is an oppressive and misguided regime that excludes her and thousands of other political activists from playing a part in their countrys future."
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