NAYPYITAW, Myanmar - Myanmar’s government urged prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday to officially register her National League for Democracy as a party, a step that would imply its acceptance of the government’s legitimacy and also allow it to legally take part in politics.
Information Minister Kyaw Hsan’s suggestion at a rare news conference came two days before Suu Kyi plans to make her first political foray into the countryside since her release from seven years of house arrest last November.
It also came as she held a second meeting with a government minister in what appeared to be preliminary talks on establishing a dialogue.
If Suu Kyi’s group reaches an accommodation with the government, it could serve as a reason for Western nations to lift political and economic embargoes on the country that have hindered development and pushed it into dependence on neighboring China.
What Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi would expect in exchange for registering her party is unclear, though it could include the freedom of some of the country’s 2,000 political prisoners.
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