Surakiart to push for democratic reform in Burma if elected
Kuala Lumpur - Thailand's candidate for UN top post said on Wednesday he would push for democratic reforms in Burma if elected.
Speaking on the sideline of Asean's foreign minister meeting, Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, said he would also press the junta for the release of Nobel prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi."Definitely. I believe in the role of the Secretary-General in good offices," Surakiart told reporters when asked if he would lean on Rangoon for more democracy. "(Kofi Annan) has done a lot, and we would pick up from the work he has done and continue to work closely with Asean," he said. Surakiart, who reportedly polled third in a recent UN Security Council straw poll of four candidates for the UN job, said he understood local "complications" because he was from the region. "We know it is important that democracy must take place in Myanmar (Burma) as soon as possible and Aung San Suu Kyi should be released as soon as possible," he added. Kofi Annan completes his second five-year term as Secretary General at the end of the year. An informal consensus is that it is Asia's turn to assume the job, in line with an unwritten rule of regional rotation at the world body. In Monday's secret Security Council poll, South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon came first followed by Indian candidate Shashi Tharoor, the UN's undersecretary in charge of communications, according to Indian media. Agence France Presse/The Nation
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