The party of Myanmar’s detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi marked its anniversary Tuesday with a call to the nation’s military rulers to heed the recommendations of the United Nations.

The statement came one week after former Czech president Vaclav Havel and retired South African archbishop Desmond Tutu submitted a report to the world body calling for new UN efforts to bring reforms to Myanmar.

“Since Burma (Myanmar) is a member of the United Nations, it has the obligations to follow the recommendations of the General Assembly, the independent agencies and the secretary general,” the National League for Democracy said in a statement.

Havel and Tutu recommended that the UN Security Council adopt a resolution compelling Myanmar to work with Secretary General Kofi Annan in implementing a national reconciliation plan that would bring a democratically elected government.

About 500 people, including American, British and French diplomats, attended a sedate ceremony at the NLD’s humble headquarters in Yangon to mark the party’s 17th anniversary.

Among the guests of honour were former student leaders such as Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, who helped lead 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations that were brutally suppressed by the military.

Security forces including police watched over the ceremony from across the street.

The student leaders had been jailed for more than a decade, but were released along with hundreds of other dissidents in a process which began in November 2004. The junta still holds more than 1,100 political prisoners, according to Amnesty International.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo remain under house arrest and the party’s regional offices have all been shuttered.

The NLD won 1990 elections but was never allowed to govern. Many of its officers have been detained over the years.

In its statement, the NLD also called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all the other political prisoners, as well as for the junta to recognize the results of the elections.