INDEX:

Excerpt:

BURMA
16

National Reconciliation Meetings in Bangkok


QUESTION: Richard, the Thai Foreign Minister quotes the Burmese Foreign
Minister as saying that Burma plans to hold a constitutional convention next
year, and that the NLD opposition party would be invited to it. What's your
reaction? Does this seem like a step in the right direction, or do you not
expect this to actually to come to pass?

MR. BOUCHER: The Deputy Secretary, Deputy Secretary Armitage, spoke this
morning with Thai Foreign Minister Surakiat. Among other things, they talked
about Burma. They did talk about Iraq a little bit. The Thai Foreign Minister
gave him a rundown of the meetings that are going on in Bangkok with the
Burmese.

Our view is that we hope that the meetings will lead to tangible and real
progress in Burma. We have always made clear that the participation of
representatives of ethnic minorities in democratic opposition in a political
dialogue is essential to national reconciliation in Burma.

If those kind of steps are promised, we certainly look for them to happen, and
to happen sooner rather than later. We urge the Burmese authorities to release
Aung San Suu Kyi and all others detained for the peaceful _expression of their
political beliefs immediately and unconditionally.

QUESTION: Speaking of the military junta's past record, do you have any reason
to actually expect that they will permit broader political participation?

MR. BOUCHER: I think indirectly that was the point I was trying to make, that
we have seen promises, we have seen floaters, we have seen ideas, and others
have heard these sorts of promises from Burmese authorities. What we want to
see is the kind of action that would demonstrate that they're really going to
allow the political forces in Burma and the ethnic minorities to participate in
Burma's future, that they're going to release these people from jail and allow
the political parties to become involved in the future of their nation, as they
should.