U.N.`s Ban to visit Myanmar to urge democratic reform

(VISIT, TRIAL, KYI`S, ARREST, MYANMAR, HOUSE, UN)

By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit Myanmar this week to urge its military leaders to press ahead with democratic reforms and free all political prisoners, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Monday.
Ban will visit the country formerly known as Burma on July 3-4, spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters, adding that there were several pressing issues he would focus on in his discussions with the junta.
"These are the release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the resumption of dialogue between the government and opposition ... and the need to create conditions conducive to credible elections," she said.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate and the country`s main opposition leader, has been in prison or under house arrest off and on since 1989.
The military junta that has ruled Myanmar since 1962 put Suu Kyi on trial again recently, accusing her of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing an unauthorized guest to stay at her lakeside home.
Her trial is expected to resume on July 3, the day Ban arrives in Myanmar. U.N. diplomats have said the secretary-general was concerned his visit could be used as propaganda to legitimize Suu Kyi`s trial.
"The timing of this visit is not ideal," said one Western diplomat on condition of anonymity. "But the (secretary-general) is one of our few ways of exerting pressure on the regime."
Western governments have dismissed Suu Kyi`s prosecution as a "show trial" intended to keep her out of multi-party elections planned next year, which critics say will entrench almost half a century of army rule in the former Burma.
Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest by allowing an American intruder to stay at her home last month, which prosecutors said was a breach of a security law protecting the state from "subversive elements."
American John Yettaw swam across the Inya lake to Suu Kyi`s home on May 4 to warn her "terrorists" were planning to assassinate her. He and two of Suu Kyi`s housemaids have also been charged with breaking the same security law.
(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Vicki Allen)
Original article