New Delhi (Mizzima) – United Nation’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday said he would like to revisit military-ruled Burma and assist the country in the realization of former Burmese U.N. Secretary-General U Thant’s vision of democracy.
Speaking at a New York luncheon held in honor of the centenary anniversary of U Thant's birth, Ban said the former Secretary-General was a strong advocate of democracy and had worked hard to bring peace under his concept of ‘One World’.
“It is a sad irony that U Thant's vision of democracy has not been realized in his own country. That is why I would like to visit Myanmar [Burma] again this year,” Ban iterated.
Ban earlier revealed his plan to pay a visit to Burma during an interview with CNN, saying he would like to go back to the Southeast Asian nation as soon as possible and push for the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
The world body chief also praised U Thant, the first Asian to become U.N. Secretary-General, for his commitment toward world peace and his efforts in defusing Cold War tensions and in helping to lay the foundations for sustainable development.
Ban Ki-moon is the second Asian to be elected Secretary-General of the U.N.
During his tenure as the third Secretary-General, from 1961 to 1971, U Thant successfully mediated and prevented the possible outbreak of war in Yemen in 1962 and Bahrain in 1968 amidst fears of a wider regional conflict.
Ban, during his visit to Burma in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, paid homage to U Thant’s mausoleum in Rangoon.
U Thant was born in Pantanaw in Burma's Irrawaddy Division on January 22, 1909, and passed away on November 25th, 1974, due to lung cancer.
Despite his popularity on the international stage, Burma's former military strongman, General Ne Win, who assumed power in a bloodless coup in 1962, refused to honor U Thant with a state funeral after his body was flown back to Burma from New York.
Ne Win's lack of respect immediately provoked Rangoon University students into action, taking the body of U Thant to the university in order to organize a grand funeral. However, troops sent to the campus by Ne Win to confront the students instead opened fire on the gathering.
The event, which started off as a demand to hold a state funeral for U Thant, is known in modern Burmese history as the 'U Thant uprising', as following the bloody crackdown students and civilians marched the streets of Rangoon in protest against Ne Win and his Burma Socialist Program Party.
