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Six Nobel prize winners urge Myanma



STOCKHOLM, Aug 4 (AFP) - Six Nobel prize winners on Tuesday urged Myanmar's
military leaders to restore democracy in an appeal published ahead of the
10th anniversary of a pro-democracy uprising which reportedly left 3,000 dead.

The Nobel laureates called on the junta to engage in "constructive dialogue"
with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who they said was a virtual
prisoner under the regime.

They pressed the authorities to "restore all democratic liberties, release
political prisoners unconditionally and open negotiations on a programme and
a timetable for the transition to democracy."

The appeal was released by the International Institute for Democracy and
Electoral Assistance (IDEA) at its headquarters in Stockholm.

The Nobel prize winners expressed their solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi --
a Nobel peace prize winner in 1991 -- who remained in her car in a tense
six-day stand-off with the authorities last week when she was prevented from
visiting provincial party officials.

It was the third time she had been stopped trying to leave the capital in
three weeks.

The signatories to the appeal, which was co-ordinated by IDEA, are Nobel
peace prize winners Lech Walesa (Poland, 1983), Desmond Tutu (South Africa,
1984), Oscar Arias Sanchez (Costa Rica, 1987), Jose Ramos-Horta (East Timor,
1987) as well as Nobel literature winners Nadine Gordimer (South Africa) and
Derek Walcott (Saint Lucia).

IDEA hopes the appeal will attract international attention to the
"exceptional tragedy" in Myanmar as part of "a growing wave of public
support for the democratisation of southeast Asia."

Aung San Suu Kyi plans to organise a ceremony on August 8 to commemorate the
bloody clampdown on a pro-democracy uprising in 1988.

Her party, the National League for Democracy, won elections in 1990 but the
ruling junta has refused to hand over power.

Troops have been stationed at strategic junctions around the capital,
Yangon, in the past few days in a bid to smother possible dissent ahead of
Saturday's anniversary.

Another sensitive date is August 21, when the NLD has said the junta must
convene parliament or face unspecified consequences.

The US, Australian and New Zealand embassies on Friday asked for United
Nations intervention to force the isolated country's military leaders into a
genuine dialogue with its democratically elected government.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to send assistant secretary general
for political affairs Alvaro de Soto to Myanmar in September or October.