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".