Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general, attacked Burma’s military rulers this weekend after the army chief rebuffed his plea to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed Nobel prizewinner.
In a rare critical public speech to 500 state officials, diplomats and opposition politicians at Rangoon’s Drug Elimination Museum, Mr Ban said that “allowing a visit to Aung San Suu Kyi would have been an important symbol of the government’s willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible”.
Ms Suu Kyi is in Rangoon’s Insein prison on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest, after an incident in which an American sneaked into her home. –(Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2009)