Perhaps there is some underlying integrity in the fact that it was actually Ban Ki-moon's spokeswoman Michele Montas who made what may be the first call by this U.N. Secretary-General for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi as well as the other political prisoners.
None of the political prisoners freed with the 2,841 felons in an amnesty celebrating Burma's independence from Britain were leading opposition figures, Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy, said in Yangon. He said that of the 40, about 20 were members of the group but none were prominent or in ailing health.
This all brings to question: How tough a stance will a South Korean Secretary-General take on Burma? I had read not too expect anything more than what you would expect from Kofi Annan.
The issue is getting more difficult for ASEAN to continue to overlook, even though some members are there to speak out more loudly than others. But as it is so realisticly put here,
...as long as China trades with Burma, the military government may be able to withstand pressure to change for years.
Burma has been compared to North Korea in the sense that it is a threat to it's neighbors but Peter Christian Hauswedell, former director general for Asia and the Pacific region for the German foreign ministry, stated that
"[That] is a bit farfetched. If you would ask Myanmar's neighbours India, Bangladesh, Laos, Thailand, and China whether they see Myanmar as a threat, they would not affirm this. Rather, India, China, and Thailand compete for the country's raw materials and resources and refrain from criticising Myanmar."
He goes on to make a valid point, without discrediting the use of sanctions, he says that,
"Rather than isolating Myanmar, the Western sanctions have isolated the West from Myanmar and deprived it of influence over the country's development,"
Perhaps the option of incentives would be a nice third option here but how can you give incentives to an illegitimate government?
Human Rights Watch has cited the regime for the detention of 1,300 political prisoners, the killing of protesters, and the use of 70,000 child soldiers, which is the largest concentration of under-18 conscripts in the world
