Myanmar missed opportunity for democracy: Annan

Uited Nations, May 31 : UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said Myanmar's junta missed an opportunity for democracy and national reconciliation by imposing another year of house arrest for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The news about Suu Kyi on Saturday came just days after Ibrahim Gambari, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, visited Myanmar and said the ruling junta appeared ''ready to turn a new page.'' Annan told reporters he was disappointed the Myanmar government did not release Suu Kyi from detention and that he hoped governments would ''bring pressure to bear'' in appealing for her release.

''Myanmar's leadership has missed a significant opportunity to confirm, through concrete actions, its expressed commitment to move toward true national reconciliation and all-inclusive democracy, as well as improved relations with the international community,'' Annan said in a statement.

Suu Kyi, 60, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been in prison or under house arrest off and on since 1989. Her party, the National League for Democracy, won landslide elections in 1990 but the military refused to relinquish power.

Gambari had rare access to government leaders and was the first senior UN official to meet with Suu Kyi in two years.

He said that was a sign of a changed attitude from the junta.

Myanmar, formerly Burma, isolated from the West and increasingly estranged from its neighbors, said in 2003 it would embark on seven-step ''road map to democracy.'' It is still on the first step -- a national conference writing a new constitution boycotted by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy because of her detention.

The junta this year also stepped up an offensive against ethnic Karen rebels, which according to human rights groups has forced up to 11,000 people to flee their homes in a spate of ethnic cleansing, rape and murder.

Chief UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said efforts to release Suu Kyi would continue. ''Lines of communication have been opened with Gambari's visit,'' he said.

He gave no concrete steps the world body would take.

Myanmar is not officially on the UN Security Council agenda but US Ambassador John Bolton said Gambari would be asked to brief the 15-member body. In December, China, Japan, Russia and Algeria argued that human rights violations in Myanmar went beyond the council's mandate of international peace and security.

Reuters