China Pressed by UN to Support Democracy in Myanmar (Update1) 

Paul Tighe
July 10, 2007
Bloomberg
Original Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aWC2LOG1pZ_4&refer=home
July 10 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations sent an envoy to China to seek support for international demands that Myanmar's military junta makes democratic changes. 
Ibrahim Gambari, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special adviser on Myanmar, will also visit India and Japan, Marie Okabe, a UN spokeswoman, said yesterday in New York. He met Chinese government officials in Beijing yesterday, she said. 
``Any effort to promote positive changes in Myanmar is going to require not only direct dialogue with the government and people of the country, but also dialogue with all interested countries and all who can potentially help support our efforts,'' Okabe said, according to the UN Web site. 
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been under international sanctions since the military rejected the results of elections in 1990 won by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party. China and Russia on Jan. 12 vetoed a U.S. resolution at the Security Council pressing Myanmar to free Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and move toward democracy. 
Myanmar and China have agreed on a project to build a pipeline to bring oil to southern China. Myanmar intends to ignore U.S. sanctions and use companies from China, India and France to export natural gas in Asia, U Myint Kyi, managing director of state-owned Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise, said in Beijing in January. 
The military, which has ruled the country of 47 million people since 1962, has ignored repeated calls by the U.S. and the UN for the release of more than 1,000 political prisoners and a return to democracy. 
National Convention 
The junta said earlier this month that a national convention on drafting a new constitution including democratic changes will resume July 18, Agence France-Presse reported at the time. The UN and U.S. say the exclusion of several opposition and ethnic groups from discussions that began in 2004 makes the process illegitimate. 
U.S. and Myanmar government officials met last month in Beijing and failed to make progress over the release of Suu Kyi and other prisoners, the State Department said at the time. 
Suu Kyi, 61, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for democracy in Myanmar, has spent 11 years in detention since 1990. She was last placed under arrest at her home in Yangon in 2003. The military extended the detention order by a year on May 25, a move that drew international condemnation.