Democracy for Myanmar.

Byline: The Register-Guard

When President Bush meets with Asian leaders next week in Bangkok, he should intensify pressure on Myanmar's military junta to release sequestered Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 1,400 political prisoners.

As Bush attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit on Oct. 21, he should make clear to Asian leaders that Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, should face intensified international sanctions and diplomatic pressure until its rulers free Suu Kyi, along with her colleagues in Burma's National League for Democracy. Further, Bush should call upon the junta to immediately begin meaningful talks with Suu Kyi's party, which won 82 percent of the vote in 1990 before the military seized power.

While wielding the stick of sanctions and diplomacy, Bush should also hold out carrots - relaxed sanctions and a gradual resumption of international assistance, foreign investment, trade and tourism - that would follow meaningful and verifiable movement toward free elections and political reform.

The military junta has committed numerous atrocities since it crushed a democracy movement led by Suu Kyi and seized power 15 years ago. They include mass punitive rapes of women and girls, most of them members of ethnic minorities, by Myanmar's army and forced relocations of civilians.

Like Nelson Mandela in apartheid South Africa, 58-year-year-old Suu Kyi has become an international symbol of resistance to oppressive government. A lifelong pacifist, she was freed in May 2002 after 19 months of house arrest, and then rearrested last May in a violent confrontation provoked by pro-junta thugs. The government shut down the offices of her political party and detained her at a secret location.

In response to intense international pressure and mounting sanctions, the junta recently unveiled a seven-point `road map'' for change, including free elections. Bush should make clear that this plan has no credibility as long as Suu Kyi remains under arrest.

Myanmar's Asian neighbors, including China, have been slow to join the United States and Europe in pressuring this brutal regime. Bush's visit offers an opportunity for them to make a public commitment to ending the military's grip on Myanmar - and easing the plight of its long-suffering people.

``To talk about change is not enough, change must happen,'' Suu Kyi said in one of her few public appearances last year. Bush should keep that counsel in mind as he visits with Asian leaders next week.