YANGON - Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement released by a UN envoy on Thursday that she is ready to co-operate with Myanmar's military rulers to pursue national reconciliation.
"In the interest of the nation I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success," Suu Kyi said in the statement released by the envoy, Ibrahim Gambari.
Gambari met Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, for an hour before his departure from Myanmar Thursday. He flew to Singapore, where he read out her statement at a news conference. He is supposed to return to UN headquarters in New York by Monday.
"We now have a process going which will lead to a dialogue between the government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," Gambari told reporters. "Such a dialogue is key instrument in promoting national reconciliation and the goals of peace and democracy and full respect for human rights in Myanmar."
Myanmar's military government announced earlier that it would allow Suu Kyi to meet her party's officials Friday, the first such meeting in more than three years.
Aung Kyi, the government minister in charge of relations with Suu Kyi, will see her first to make arrangements for the meeting, state media said.
The announcement on state radio and television news Thursday came hours after Gambari left Myanmar saying he had made progress in his six-day mission to promote a dialogue between the junta and Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi has been detained since May 2003, and has not seen fellow executive members of her National League for Democracy since May 2004.
The current junta came to power in 1988. It held elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won in a landslide. Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel Peace laureate, has spent 12 of the last 18 years in government custody.
There had been signs that Gambari's trip did not go well, including his failure to be received by the junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and the military government's rejection of Gambari's proposal of a three-way meeting involving Suu Kyi, a junta member and himself.
The government invited Gambari to return to Myanmar, and he expects to do so in the next few weeks, said a statement posted on the Web site of the UN Information Center for Myanmar at the conclusion of the envoy's visit.
"The sooner such a dialogue can start, the better for Myanmar," the statement said.
The Suu Kyi statement released by Gambari was the first such message from her since she was detained, and would be the first chance to gauge her reaction to September's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators and the subsequent UN mediation efforts.
In her statement, Suu Kyi thanked the United Nations for its "unwavering support" for national reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Myanmar.
"In this time of vital need for democratic solidarity and national unity, it is my duty to give constant and serious consideration to the interests and opinions of as broad a range of political organizations and forces as possible, in particular those of our ethnic nationality races," Suu Kyi said.
"To that end I am committed to pursue the path of dialogue constructively and invite the government and all relevant parties to join me in this spirit," she said.
