WASHINGTON—For the first time in several months, the United Nations Security Council will hold consultations on Burma on Thursday.
The 15-member body is expected to discuss the current situation in Burma in the aftermath of the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader, and the completion of parliamentary elections, which the world has termed illegitimate.
Britain is the president of the UN Security Council for the month of November.
Meanwhile, the former first lady, Laura Bush, has said that she hoped that the release of Suu Kyi is unconditional, and that she would not be put under house arrest again.
“For most of the past two decades, the leader of Burma's democracy movement and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was a prisoner in her own home. The free world rejoiced this week at her release, but it came only after she was banned from participating in Burma's recent elections,” said Laura Bush, who during the Bush administration was instrumental in shaping the US policy towards Burma.
“She's been released before, only to be placed back under house arrest by the military regime. This time, we hope that Aung San Suu Kyi's freed without condition, and that she's allowed to continue her peaceful work until the day when all of Burma's citizens live in freedom,” Laura Bush said.
“Around the world, all of us who live in freedom have the obligation to condemn barbaric acts against women, because an electorate that shuts out women is not a democracy, and a population that denies the rights of women is not a free society,” said the former First Lady said.
Suzanne DiMaggio, the director of Asia Society's Task Force on US Policy Towards Burma, said that Burmese military leaders are "spinning" Suu Kyi's release.
"It is more likely an attempt to deflect attention away from widespread reports of voter fraud and rigging in an election where the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party claims to have won 80 percent of the vote," she said.
DiMaggio sees Suu Kyi’s release as an opportunity for the Obama administration, but the process of change through engagement threatens to be protracted. “China and India should lend their weight to this, but will they?” she asked.
"In his address to India’s Parliament last week, when he voiced support for India’s seat on the U.N. Security Council, President Obama called on Delhi to play a more positive role in Burma. The gap with China on this issue seems as large as ever as Beijing hailed the elections as a critical step in Burma’s ‘transition to an elected government' ignoring the widespread irregularities and intimidation that took place prior to the election,” DiMaggio said.
"The key to understanding this weekend's release of Aung San Suu Kyi," said Sheridan Prasso, an Asia Society associate fellow who interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi in 1998, "is that she has been released twice before, has agitated many times before for further political change—as she is doing once again—and then was re-detained for pushing the limits too far. We can surely expect a repeat of this tension-filled history: she won't be silent while more than 2,000 members of her party remain in prison under authoritarian rule; and the generals who recently cemented their power with a farcical election have no interest in sharing power or in letting Daw Suu loosen their grip."
Suu Kyi has been called Asia's Nelson Mandela, but in a recent op-ed for the International Herald Tribune, Bertil Lintner, an Asia Society associate fellow and author of seven books on Burma, wrote "many foreign observers are wondering whether her release will bring Myanmar's 'Mandela moment'—the beginning of the end of repression and the first, tangible step toward national reconciliation. But this is a skewed analogy. There are fundamental differences between the transition to majority rule in South Africa and Myanmar's struggle for democracy."
The 15-member body is expected to discuss the current situation in Burma in the aftermath of the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader, and the completion of parliamentary elections, which the world has termed illegitimate.
Britain is the president of the UN Security Council for the month of November.
Meanwhile, the former first lady, Laura Bush, has said that she hoped that the release of Suu Kyi is unconditional, and that she would not be put under house arrest again.
“For most of the past two decades, the leader of Burma's democracy movement and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was a prisoner in her own home. The free world rejoiced this week at her release, but it came only after she was banned from participating in Burma's recent elections,” said Laura Bush, who during the Bush administration was instrumental in shaping the US policy towards Burma.
“She's been released before, only to be placed back under house arrest by the military regime. This time, we hope that Aung San Suu Kyi's freed without condition, and that she's allowed to continue her peaceful work until the day when all of Burma's citizens live in freedom,” Laura Bush said.
“Around the world, all of us who live in freedom have the obligation to condemn barbaric acts against women, because an electorate that shuts out women is not a democracy, and a population that denies the rights of women is not a free society,” said the former First Lady said.
Suzanne DiMaggio, the director of Asia Society's Task Force on US Policy Towards Burma, said that Burmese military leaders are "spinning" Suu Kyi's release.
"It is more likely an attempt to deflect attention away from widespread reports of voter fraud and rigging in an election where the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party claims to have won 80 percent of the vote," she said.
DiMaggio sees Suu Kyi’s release as an opportunity for the Obama administration, but the process of change through engagement threatens to be protracted. “China and India should lend their weight to this, but will they?” she asked.
"In his address to India’s Parliament last week, when he voiced support for India’s seat on the U.N. Security Council, President Obama called on Delhi to play a more positive role in Burma. The gap with China on this issue seems as large as ever as Beijing hailed the elections as a critical step in Burma’s ‘transition to an elected government' ignoring the widespread irregularities and intimidation that took place prior to the election,” DiMaggio said.
"The key to understanding this weekend's release of Aung San Suu Kyi," said Sheridan Prasso, an Asia Society associate fellow who interviewed Aung San Suu Kyi in 1998, "is that she has been released twice before, has agitated many times before for further political change—as she is doing once again—and then was re-detained for pushing the limits too far. We can surely expect a repeat of this tension-filled history: she won't be silent while more than 2,000 members of her party remain in prison under authoritarian rule; and the generals who recently cemented their power with a farcical election have no interest in sharing power or in letting Daw Suu loosen their grip."
Suu Kyi has been called Asia's Nelson Mandela, but in a recent op-ed for the International Herald Tribune, Bertil Lintner, an Asia Society associate fellow and author of seven books on Burma, wrote "many foreign observers are wondering whether her release will bring Myanmar's 'Mandela moment'—the beginning of the end of repression and the first, tangible step toward national reconciliation. But this is a skewed analogy. There are fundamental differences between the transition to majority rule in South Africa and Myanmar's struggle for democracy."
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