July 27: In a statement issued on 27 July, Burma’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) urged the country’s ruling junta to implement its pledge for reconciliation and democratization. “State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) said that it had decided to relinquish its turn to be the Chair of ASEAN in 2006 because it would want to focus its attention on the ongoing national reconciliation and democratization process,” the statement says. “NLD believes that with the present situation, the implementation of national reconciliation and democratization and economic developments are genuinely and truly essential for the country.”

The statement ends by urging the SPDC to hold political dialogues with the NLD, ethnic national groups (including armed ethnic groups) and other political parties, in order to implement national reconciliation, democratization and economic developments. When DVB asked NLD spokesman Nyan Win if the party would accept the junta’s so-called National Convention and seven-point road map, he insisted that the NLD need to accept them if they are for genuine national reconciliation.

A renowned student leader Ko Ko Gyi also said that if the junta really wants to implement national reconciliation and democratization, all the people concerned will be willing to participate. “After talking about the national reconciliation, first, we have to accept and understand deeply that there are political differences between us,” Ko Ko Gyi asserted. “Therefore, we are repeatedly urging all sides to recognise the political differences and try to solve the problems with patience and great understanding. In fact, we are not opposing the national convention.” He then added that a national convention must represent the wide-ranging part of the nation in order to solve all the national problems.