ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

by Salai Pi Pi | New Delhi (Mizzima) - More than 110 former state leaders of several nations have called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit Burma before the New Year and press the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners.

A total of 112 former presidents and prime ministers from more than 50 countries on Wednesday sent a letter to Ban Ki-moon urging him to make a personal visit to Burma before the end of this year and pressure the junta to free detained Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners.

"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," said a letter released by the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights and Freedom Now.

The letter further informed Ban that the Burmese people are counting on the UN to take the necessary actions to achieve democratic reform and to address the humanitarian crisis and ongoing human rights abuses inside the country.

The world body chief visited Burma in May and persuaded the junta to allow an increase in relief supplies and aid workers into the country to help victims of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Burma's delta region, leaving more than 130,000 people killed or missing and some 2.4 million in need of assistance.

Ban earlier said that he was ready to pay another visit to the Southeast Asian nation in December to try and address the political deadlock. But the Secretary General's spokesperson last month hinted that Ban might cancel his planned trip if there is no political progress in Burma.

The UN Security Council issued a presidential statement in October of last year calling for the early release of all political prisoners in Burma. Moreover, the world body also set 2008 as the deadline for the Burmese regime to free all political prisoners.

The junta, however, has apparently ignored the appeal of the Security Council, instead continuing to arrest and imprison a record number of political activists.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), an activist group based in Thailand, the population of political prisoners in Burma drastically increased to more than 2,000 this year from an estimated 1,200 a year previously.

According to the AAPP-B, over the course of October and November the regime has handed out harsh sentences to at least 215 political activists, including members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), monks, relief workers, journalists, bloggers, artists and lawyers. The sentences range from four months to up to 68 years in prison.

The ex-world leaders also urged Ban to persuade the Security Council to take firm action to implement its October statement on Burma if efforts to change Burma are not successfully implemented by the end of 2008.

The letter to Ban was initiated by former Prime Minister of Norway and President of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, Kjell Magne Bondevik. Other signatories to the letter include U.S. President George H.W. Bush and former President Jimmy Carter, former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher and John Major and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.