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India To Step Up Support For Change In Burma: Gambari |
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by Mizzima News
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Friday, 01 February 2008 00:00 |
India has assured the visiting UN special envoy to Burma that it will step up its support to the world body's efforts to persuade the Burmese generals to implement political reforms.
India, which has a close relationship with the Burmese generals, told the visiting envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, that it will step up its support to the UN initiative for reforms in Burma.
"Mr. Gambari is encouraged by these consultations and India's support for the Secretary-General's good offices on Myanmar [Burma]," UN spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.
Gambari, who concluded his second visit to New Delhi on Thursday, met India's External Affairs Minister, Foreign Secretary and Vice President.
While the Indian Ministry of External Affairs did not publicize Gambari's visit and his meetings with Indian officials, the UN envoy, before leaving the country on Thursday told reporters that he had asked India to help source more information on Burma and to regularize his visits to the country.
"Last time, China facilitated my trip to Myanmar [Burma]. This time, I believe it will be India," Indian media reports quoted Gambari as saying.
Gambari, who will also visit China later in February, said India, which earlier was unwilling to pressurise the Burmese junta in fear of hampering its hard-built relationship, has promised to do its best.
Gambari, however, said, "there is still more that everybody can do."
He added that all those who have a role to play, both inside the country and outside, should be given the chance to do so in the interest of moving towards "a peaceful, prosperous but democratic Myanmar [Burma] with full respect for the human rights of its people."
Gambari, who visited Burma twice following the junta's bloody crackdown on protesters in September, said he was asked to re-enter the country earlier in January but the ruling junta has indicated that they prefer the visit in April.
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