President Elbegdorj calls Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the phone

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - The president of Mongolia, the first democratic state in Central Asia, has extended his support to Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a telephone call, according to the US Campaign for Burma.

President Elbegdorj, who co-drafted Mongolia’s 1992 Constitution, said that Mongolia’s transition from Communism to democracy could be seen as an example of moving from oppression to freedom and that free market reforms and human rights can be linked to economic development in Burma.

‘I would encourage Burma’s rulers to realize that democracy should not be feared but embraced’, said Elbegdorj.

Noting the waves of pro-democracy movements that have spread throughout the Middle East in recent weeks, Elbegorj said he believed that the Burmese people could realize democracy in their own oppressive state.

‘As we continue to watch the millions of people struggling in the Middle East for greater freedoms and oppressive regimes fall, I am confident that the strength of the Burmese people, to peacefully but forcefully push for the democracy that is rightly theirs, will be realized’, he said. ‘No amount of oppression or the longstanding violence against the Burmese and ethnic groups can stand against a people that want to be free’.


Source:www.mizzima.com (Burmese News Portal)