Ex-Presidents, Premiers urge UN Chief to intervene in Myanmar

US: More than 100 former government leaders wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Wednesday asking him to travel to military-ruled Myanmar to secure the release of pro-independence leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

The prominent figures behind the letter include ex-US presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-Australian premier John Howard, former French prime minister Lionel Jospin, former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and ex-Philippine leaders Fidel Ramos and Corazon Aquino.

“This is an unprecedented outpouring of global support for the people of Burma (Myanmar), and I am pleased that so many have joined me in spotlighting this important issue,” said Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Norwegian Prime Minister.

“Today we unite to call on the United Nations to take action — the first step towards achieving national reconciliation in Burma is creating a firm deadline for the release of all political prisoners,” said Bondevik, now president of the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, which together with US-based rights group Freedom Now led the initiative.

The former leaders from more than 50 nations urged Ban to personally travel to Myanmar before the end of the year to secure the release of the military junta’s 2,100 political prisoners.

“This is a historic letter from leaders representing every continent and asking the UN chief to personally intervene,” Freedom Now’s president Jared Genser told AFP.

Last month, more than 100 activists, including members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy and relief workers, journalists, monks and lawyers, were each given harsh sentences of up to 68 years in prison.

Their jailing came in the wake of a crackdown on those involved in protests in mid-2007.

The letter by the former world leaders recalled that the UN Security Council had on October 11 last year issued a presidential statement urging the early release of all political prisoners in Myanmar. The United Nations also had set the release of all political prisoners as one of its benchmark goals for 2008.

WASHINGTON, Wednesday, AFP