ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

By LALIT K JHA | NEW YORK — As many as 112 former presidents and prime ministers from more than 50 countries urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to use his good offices to secure the release of all Burmese political prisoners by the end of the year.

There was no immediate reaction from the office of the secretary-general to the letter, which is an initiative of Kjell Magne Bondevik, the former prime minister of Norway.

“We urge you to make it clear that all political prisoners in Burma must be released by the end of this year, regardless of whether you travel to Burma,” said the letter dated December 3.

“If the Burmese junta continues to defy the United Nations by refusing to make these releases by the end of the year, we urge you to encourage the Security Council to take further concrete action to implement its call for the release of all political prisoners,” the world leaders said.

Ban was initially scheduled to go to Burma this month, but with no progress in sight since his last visit in May—in fact, the situation appears to be worsening—the secretary- general has said that he is unlikely to return to the country in the near future.

“We encourage this trip because it would illustrate for the world whether or not the Burmese military regime is serious about making changes called for by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and your good offices,” said the letter.

The world leaders said they are heartened that Ban has taken up this issue and that he has reiterated in his budget request for the office of his special envoy to Burma that a key benchmark to measure progress in the country is whether all political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are released by December 31, 2008.

Observing that the Burmese military junta’s continuing crackdown on dissidents is in defiance of the international community and the UNSC, the letter said: “The Burmese people are counting on the United Nations to take the required action to achieve the breakthrough they desperately need to both restore democracy to their country and address the serious humanitarian and human rights challenges that they face.”

Among important signatories to the letter are Corazon Aquino, Tony Blair, George H W Bush, Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, John Howard, Chandrika Kumaratunga, John Major, Margaret Thatcher and Lech Walesa.

“This is a historic outpouring of global support for the people of Burma, and I am pleased that so many have joined me in spotlighting this important issue,” Bondevik said in a statement.

“Today we unite to call on the United Nations to take action. The first step towards achieving national reconciliation in Burma is creating a firm deadline for the release of all political prisoners,” he argued.

Bondevik is also president of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights.

Meanwhile, as the Security Council met Tuesday to discuss their agenda for the month of December, it became evident that there are no takers for the cause of the people of Burma inside this powerful 15-member UN body.

For two months now, Burma has been reduced to a footnote on the agenda of the UNSC.

While persecution of democracy advocates in Burma has intensified, with more than 200 dissidents receiving lengthy prison sentences in recent months for their involvement in protests last year, no country has come forward to raise the issue before the Security Council.

“On Myanmar [Burma], no delegation gave any comment. But it is in the footnotes and could be raised anytime during the month of December,” said the UNSC president for December, Ambassador Neven Jurica of Croatia.

However, informed sources indicated that the is unlikely to be raised, as the main supporters of the people of Burma inside the UNSC—in particular permanent members Britain, France and the US—are preoccupied with other issues, including terrorism, the global financial crisis and conflicts in Somalia.

The silence of the US—which has always taken the lead in highlighting the need for action on Burma in the past—is also due to the political transition in Washington, where a new administration is preparing to take power in January.

This may explain why the US mission to the UN has not taken up the issue even after the White House in a statement urged the UNSC to act on the issue of Burma.