UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — European Union special envoy for Myanmar Piero Fassino expressed support Saturday for UN efforts to promote national reconciliation in the military-ruled country.
A day after meeting in New York with the United Nations special envoy for Myanmar, Fassino said the EU wants to help foster dialogue and reconciliation in the Southeast Asian nation after the military regime suppressed peaceful protests in September.
The EU "brings, with conviction, its support and backing to the action of the United Nations, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his special representative Ibrahim Gambari," Fassino said.
Fassino also told reporters that he planned to travel to Singapore for the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that starts Monday and whose members include Myanmar.
The ASEAN meeting will be followed by a European-Asian summit, said Fassino, a former Italian foreign commerce and justice minister who was named the EU's special envoy on November 6.
In Singapore, Fassino said he planned to "collect ideas" from European and Asian officials before deciding on his next step, which he would coordinate with the action taken by Gambari.
The European Union "hopes that the EU-ASEAN summit in Singapore will be a chance to reinforce European-Asian cooperation and identify common action in favor of national reconciliation in Myanmar."
Fassino also called on Myanmar's military rulers to "lift all restrictions" imposed on the country's leading opposition figure, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.
He further demanded "the release of all people arrested for political reasons."
"The only possible and useful step is dialogue between all sides in Myanmar politics and society," said Fassino.
Fassino said the EU would offer economic, social and humanitarian aid to support a democratic transition in Myanmar.
Myanmar's regime has been under intense international pressure to undertake a democratic transition since it sparked global outrage by violently cracking down on protests led by Buddhist monks. The regime said 14 people died.
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