New Delhi - Leaders of the Group of Eight, meeting in Japan, on Tuesday urged the Burmese military junta to free all political prisoners and usher in political transition to democracy.
Leaders of eight industrial powers - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States – in a statement called on Burma's military junta, "to immediately release all political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to foster a transition to a legitimate, democratic, civilian government."
Ignoring international calls and pressures, Burma's military regime in May, extended the house arrest term of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for another year.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese democracy icon has spent over 12 of the last 18 years in solitary confinement at her lakeside villa in Rangoon. She was last arrested in May 2003, after a brutal attack by junta-backed mobs during her political tour in upper Burma.
The leaders of G8, in its statement, also called on the Burmese junta to allow free access to foreign aid workers in order to provide assistance to victims of Cyclone Nargis, which lashed the country's southwest coastal division of Irrawaddy and Rangoon in May 2-3, leaving more than 138,000 dead and missing.
G8 leaders said they are "committed to ensuring aid reaches those affected by Cyclone Nargis and called on the authorities in Burma to lift all remaining restrictions on access for foreign aid workers."
The Burmese government on Tuesday, however, said it has granted more than 1,500 visas to foreign aid experts to deliver humanitarian aid to victims of the cyclone.
According to the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), as of 7 July, visas for 317 UN staff have been approved, while 13 requests remain pending.
"Visas are now issued within two to three days of the application being sent to the TCG. The majority of visas are given as single-entry visas with an initial duration of two weeks," UNOCHA said in a 'situation overview' report released on Tuesday.
Permission to allow travel to the cyclone affected regions has to be requested from the Burmese Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement and the average processing time for such request takes about four to five days.
"More than 270 international UN staff and at least as many international staff from NGOs have travelled to affected areas as of 7 July," the UNOCHA said.
