US Reaffirms Support for Burma's Opposition Party

26 September 2006 - The United States reaffirms its support for the National League for Democracy (NLD), Burma's main opposition political party, on the 18th anniversary of its founding and promises to seek continued progress toward democracy through the United Nations.

In a statement released September 26, one day before the anniversary, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said it was "fitting" that the U.N. Security Council voted September 15 to add Burma to its permanent agenda. (See related article .)

"The Security Council recognizes that the [Burmese] regime's repression of the NLD and other independent voices in Burma is having an impact on regional stability," McCormack said.

Security Council members voted 10 to 4, with one abstention, to review the situation in Burma , which the United Nations officially refers to as Myanmar . Argentina, Denmark, France, Ghana, Greece, Japan, Peru, Slovakia and the United Kingdom joined the United States in supporting the move.  China, Russia, Qatar and the Democratic Republic of Congo were opposed.  Tanzania abstained.  

The NLD was founded September 27, 1988.  In Burma 's 1990 parliamentary elections, the party won 406 out of 489 seats (83 percent), but the ruling military regime prevented it from forming a government.  Since that time, McCormack said, the regime has harassed and arrested NLD members while thwarting meaningful political reform.

McCormack said the U.S. government would continue to work with other Security Council members to support the United Nations' good offices mission in Burma.  In addition, he said, the United States would push for a resolution urging progress toward national reconciliation and democracy and calling upon Burma's ruling junta to release political prisoners, including NLD leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for more than 10 of the last 16 years. 

"The United States reaffirms its support for Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD, and all those around the world who are working to promote freedom, respect for human rights, and democracy in Burma," McCormack said.

For additional information, see U.S. Support for Democracy in Burma .

The full text of McCormack's statement can be found at the State Department's Web site.