Aceh peacemakers set sights on Myanmar

Aceh peacemakers set sights on Myanmar

Reuters, Geneva

The Swiss humanitarian group that brokered a cease-fire in Indonesia's restive Aceh province said on Tuesday it was seeking a go-between role between Myanmar's military government and the democratic opposition.

Martin Griffiths, director of the Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialog, said the group was playing a low-profile role in supporting United Nations attempts to promote dialog between the State and Peace Development Council (SPDC) junta and pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We help by being in the country, having daily contact with Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC," Griffiths told Reuters in an interview. He did not say whether the SPDC had been receptive.

Myanmar's military has kept a tight grip on power for the past 40 years, ignoring the results of 1990 elections which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won by a landslide.

Meanwhile, Suu Kyi has said she is confident political change will come to the military-ruled country but the process could be slow, the British Broadcasting Corporation said on Wednesday.

The BBC Web site quoted Suu Kyi as saying in an interview that talks between her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and the junta had made some progress since her release from 19 months of house arrest in May, but there was still "some way to go".

Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, said she was hopeful of progress toward political reform by this time next year and that she did not think it was impossible that some political change could take place "within months".