Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition announced its return to Myanmar’s political arena Friday, as the country’s nascent reforms received a dramatic seal of approval from the United States.

After speaking directly to Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for the first time, in a call from Air Force One, US President Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton would next month become the first secretary of state to visit Myanmar for 50 years.

Attending an Asian summit in Indonesia, Obama said Clinton’s December 1-2 trip was designed to stoke “flickers” of democratic reform in a country that for decades has been blighted by military rule and international isolation.

In rare elections a year ago, Myanmar’s military rulers gave way to a nominally civilian administration which released Suu Kyi from years of house arrest and has since made a surprising series of conciliatory gestures.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) said it would re-register as a political party and contest coming by-elections after boycotting last year’s poll — paving the way for the 66-year-old democracy heroine to run for office.

She told her party on Friday that they should rejoin the mainstream political process and contest all 48 seats available in upcoming by-elections.

“Why? The NLD has not worked as a political party for a long time so we need to practise as a political party again,” she said to party delegates in Yangon, before their official decision to re-register was announced.

The NLD won a landslide victory in polls in 1990 but the then-ruling junta never allowed the party to take power. Suu Kyi, although a figurehead for the campaign, was under house arrest throughout.

Myanmar’s next election was not held until November last year, and the NLD boycotted it — mainly because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members. Suu Kyi was again under house arrest.

EU chief diplomat Catherine Ashton welcomed the “courageous” return of the NLD to the political arena as another sign of “great hope” in the military-dominated nation.

“This is a courageous and welcome decision. Fair and transparent elections leading to a wider representation of the people in the Burmese parliament will be a key step towards making national reconciliation a reality,” she said.

After spending 15 of the past 22 years in detention, Suu Kyi hinted to her party on Friday that she would stand for office herself in the by-elections. No polling dates have yet been set.

“If I think I should take part in the election, I will. Some people are worried that taking part could harm my dignity. Frankly, if you do politics, you should not be thinking about your dignity,” she said.

“I stand for the re-registration of the NLD party. I would like to work effectively towards amending the constitution. So we have to do what we need to do.”

Party spokesman Nyan Win said the group would re-register as soon as they could, possibly next week. Asked whether Suu Kyi would stand, he said: “I believe she will.”

Myanmar’s 2010 election, widely discredited by outside observers, brought the army’s political proxies to power after decades of outright military rule, but the new government has surprised critics with its recent reformist moves.

It has held direct talks with Suu Kyi, freed some 200 dissidents from jail, frozen work on an unpopular mega-dam and passed a law giving workers the right to strike.

As a reward for its conciliatory moves, Myanmar has won Southeast Asia’s backing to chair the region’s ASEAN bloc in 2014, despite concerns the move was premature.

Analysts say the return of the NLD would add to the legitimacy of the army-backed government, which is seeking to end its global isolation by loosening political shackles — but would also increase the relevance of the popular but long-excluded Suu Kyi.

Renaud Egreteau, Myanmar expert at Hong Kong University, said Suu Kyi had been led “back to the game” by Prime Minister Thein Sein.

“It is he and his entourage who have brought Aung San Suu Kyi back to the front of the stage because they need her,” he told AFP. — AFP

Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, Hussain Haqqani, said on Thursday that he had offered to resign over reports that he sought US help against the country’s powerful military.

Haqqani, a close aide of President Asif Ali Zardari, has played a key role in helping Pakistan’s civilian government navigate turbulent relations with Washington that nosedived over the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.

“I have offered to resign in conjunction with an offer to face an inquiry,” Haqqani said, denying the reports, in an email sent to AFP.

He said the purpose of this move “is to bring to an end the current controversy and allow the democratic government, for which I have worked very hard, to move on. The decision on whether I continue to serve or not rests with President Zardari”.

Local media reports implicate Haqqani in a memo allegedly sent from Zardari to Admiral Mike Mullen, then America’s top military officer, seeking to curtail Pakistan’s military after it was humiliated by the bin Laden killing.

Zardari reportedly feared that the military might seize power in one way to limit the hugely damaging fallout in Pakistan after Navy SEALs killed bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2.

“Our country and government face real challenges,” Haqqani said, denying ever writing such a memo and calling the matter a “non issue”.

Officials had confirmed earlier that Haqqani has been summoned to Islamabad.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Thursday accused the media of hounding Zardari over the memo whose existence was revealed last month by American businessman Mansoor Ijaz.

“He has already offered his resignation to the president, saying a hype has been created,” Malik said.

In an opinion piece in UK’s Financial Times on October 10, Ijaz wrote that a “senior Pakistani diplomat” telephoned him in May soon after bin Laden’s death, urging him to deliver a message to the White House bypassing Pakistan’s military and intelligence chiefs.

“The president feared a military takeover was imminent” and “needed an American fist on his army chief’s desk to end any misguided notions of a coup — and fast,” he wrote.

He said a memo was delivered to Mullen on May 10, offering that a “new national security team” would end relations between Pakistani intelligence and Afghan militants, namely the Taliban and its Haqqani faction.

Pakistani Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan said that Haqqani will be required to come to Islamabad and “explain his position and the leadership will decide if there is any lapse”. — AFP

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has assured China the boosting of US troops on Australian soil was not directed at Beijing while warning the country not to interfere in Canberra’s security decisions.

US President Barack Obama announced in Canberra on Wednesday that the US would deploy up to 2,500 Marines in the northern city of Darwin in what many see as a counterbalance to China’s growing might.

The US has viewed with concern China’s increasing assertiveness in the region on territorial disputes, as have many of China’s neighbours.

While Beijing’s official reaction has been relatively mild, the country’s state media has gone further, accusing Obama of trying to win votes by using his diplomatic ambitions in Asia to detract from his country’s economic woes.

Rudd said China, whose voracious demand for natural resources has made it Australia’s biggest trading partner, had been briefed about the announcement before it happened.

“It’s fair to say from what you see from the Chinese foreign ministry that they have reservations about what we have done, but Australia will not be changing its position,” Rudd told ABC television late Thursday.

“Number one position from us, and it’s based in absolute reality, is that this enhanced set of arrangements with the United States are not directed at any one country,” he said.

At the same time, Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking China expert and former prime minister, warned Beijing not to get involved in Australian policy decisions.

“Let’s just be very blunt about it, we are not going to have our national security policy dictated by any other external power. That’s a sovereign matter for Australia,” he said.

“We don’t seek to dictate to the Chinese what their national security policy should be. Therefore this must be advanced on the basis of mutual respect.”

Rudd dismissed suggestions the arrangement with the US could make Australia a potential target if tensions flared in the South China Sea.

“It is simply imprudent and wrong to speculate publicly on what might or might not happen in given strategic contingencies in the future,” he said.

The initial deployment of up to 250 Marines will occur from mid-2012 with the US planning to eventually send up to 2,500 troops to northern Australia as the two nations expand their 60-year military alliance. — AFP

Japan called on Germany on Friday to step up and help plug the widening hole in the eurozone’s finances, saying Berlin should play a leading role in creating a debt “firewall”.

Japan, along with China, was one of the first ports of call when the bloc began looking abroad for cash to keep its debt-crippled nations afloat.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Germany, the continent’s largest economy, needed to do more if Europe was to get out of the downward spiral of debt that is threatening to tip the global economy into recession.

“It is important for Germany to (play) a central role in creating a firm funding scheme that we can refer to as a firewall,” Azumi told a news conference, Dow Jones newswires reported.

“I think it is time for Germany to work particularly hard,” Azumi said, adding the need to prevent a worsening of the situation in Italy and Spain was becoming “urgent”.

Azumi’s comments come after European deal brokers began travelling the globe looking for cash to boost the coffers of a bailout fund earmarked for countries struggling under piles of sovereign debt.

The continent’s leaders have agreed to a massive boost to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), but shied away from putting in their own money, instead agreeing to “leverage” its capacity from 440 billion to one trillion euros, via a debt insurance scheme.

The head of the fund, Klaus Regling, received a distinctly non-committal response during a cap-in-hand visit to China, where he was asking Beijing to spend some of its $3.2 trillion of foreign reserves on the venture.

At the G20 in Cannes, Chinese President Hu Jintao told his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that Europe had primary responsibility for resolving its debt crisis.

Beijing has said it could provide up to $100 billion in support for the eurozone, but says there are strings attached; it wants certainty that the EFSF package will work and wants to know what sort of guarantees would be offered if the bailout fails.

Azumi’s comments echo statements from his boss, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, during the APEC meeting in Hawaii at the weekend.

Noda said Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, was committed to helping the eurozone but stressed the currency bloc bore primary responsibility for sorting out its own debt problems.

“We want Europe to first roll up their sleeves and work on this. I believe this is the very first step to bring confidence to the marketplace,” Noda told a news conference in Honolulu.

“This crisis is a matter that will have bearing for the world as a whole,” Noda said. “If the proper stance is demonstrated, then we will make our appropriate contributions.”

Japan was initially buying 20 percent of the debt issued by the EFSF, but the figure has recently decreased to about 10 percent.

Japan also has a mounting public debt and faces major challenges as it rebuilds from the catastrophic March 11 tsunami.

Azumi told reporters on Friday that there had been talk of G7 finance chiefs meeting again before the year is out, but said no details have yet been finalised, Dow Jones reported. — AFP

Germany on Friday welcomed a promise from Pakistan to work “without hidden agendas” in Afghanistan, as it gears up to host a key international conference on the war-torn country.

More than 90 delegations from all over the world will gather in Bonn on December 5, with Afghanistan’s neighbours playing a key role.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle arrived in Pakistan this week in preparation for the conference.

“I welcome the clear commitment by Pakistan that it has no hidden agenda in Afghanistan,” Westerwelle told a news conference alongside Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar after talks in Islamabad.

“We have to work together because stability in Afghanistan is in our interest and in the interest of the world,” he said.

“The commitment of the German government and the international community is crystal clear — we will not forget Afghanistan and this region,” he added.

NATO combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and the Afghan government is set to take full responsibility for national security.

The United States and Afghanistan have often accused Pakistan of playing a double game in continuing to support the Afghan Taliban as a means of offsetting the growing power of arch-rival India.

Westerwelle, who also held talks with Pakistan’s powerful army chief of staff General Ashfaq Kayani, called for a political solution in Afghanistan, saying his country believes that military engagement alone will not work.

Earlier this year, Der Spiegel magazine said Germany was helping mediate secret, direct talks between the US and the Afghan Taliban although Western diplomats in Kabul now say these have collapsed.

Peace efforts in Afghanistan were driven further into a dead end by the September assassination of Kabul peace envoy Burhanuddin Rabbani by a suicide turban bomber.

“Pakistan has no hidden agenda for pursuit of peace in Afghanistan and in the region,” Khar told the news conference.

“We want a stable and peaceful government in Afghanistan which allows us to function peacefully,” she added. — AFP

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Government monitors reached seven camps spread across Nepal by Friday to begin asking 19,000 former rebels whether they will join the army or leave with cash to start new lives, five years after ending their insurgency to join a peace process.

The process was long stalled over the future of the rebels. Maoists wanted all their former fighters integrated into the army, which military leaders and other political parties resisted. Nepal’s main political parties finally reached agreement this month.

Since ending their bloody revolt in 2006, the former Maoist fighters have lived in huts in the camps surrounded by barbed wire. The United Nations supervised the fighters, whose weapons stayed locked in metal containers inside the camps. Some fighters married and have children living with them, though child soldiers left the camps last year.

Monitors reached the seven camps Thursday and Friday and will start questioning the former fighters Saturday, chief monitor Balananda Sharma said. Decisions on who will enter the army and who will leave the camps are expected to be finished within 10 days.

The agreement allows for 6,500 former rebels to be taken in the national army in non-combat roles. The rest will get a rehabilitation package with up to 900,000 rupees ($11,500) cash.

After the U.N. peace mission left Nepal in January, the fighters were closely monitored by a special government committee.

The agreement on the rebels’ future now puts pressure on the coalition government to overcome political paralysis and finish a constitution that will determine how Nepal develops after years of civil war and upheaval. The document was due originally in 2008. — AP

Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is likely to contest an upcoming by-election, a party spokesman said Saturday, paving the way for a political comeback after years of exclusion by army generals.

Her National League for Democracy (NLD), delisted last year for boycotting the first elections for 20 years, will consider on Friday whether to re-register as a political party, after Myanmar’s president recently approved changes to the registration laws.

“The NLD is likely to register and also Daw Suu is likely to participate at the coming by-election,” Nyan Win, a party spokesman told AFP. Daw is a term of respect.

It is not yet clear when a by-election will be held, but there are more than 40 seats available in parliament’s two chambers.

Suu Kyi swept the NLD to election victory in 1990 but the party was barred from taking office, and it shunned last year’s vote largely because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members. Suu Kyi was under house arrest at the time.

Locked up for 15 of the past 22 years, the 66-year-old Nobel peace prize winner was released from her latest stint in detention a few days after last November’s poll, which was widely condemned as a farce by the West.

The new army-backed government has, however, surprised critics with a string of reformist steps, such as defying ally China by freezing work on an unpopular mega-dam in the north, and holding direct talks with Suu Kyi.

The daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947, Suu Kyi took on a leading role in the pro-democracy movement in 1988, the year that protests erupted against the military and were brutally crushed.

Widely known as “The Lady” in Myanmar, she became a beacon of hope for many in her country in the face of repression, but was widely feared by the military rulers.

While Myanmar’s nominally civilian government is still filled with former generals, the government said in September it was ready to work with Suu Kyi and her party if they officially re-entered politics.

A decision to re-register is widely expected, with 100 senior NLD members gathering in Yangon on Friday to discuss the move.

Nyan Win did not comment on which constituency Suu Kyi would stand in, or what kind of position she expected, but party sources said she would contest in a Yangon township.

His comments came a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Myanmar needed to do “much more” to improve human rights, despite her belief that “real changes” were under way.

“We continue to call for the unconditional release of all political prisoners and an end to the violence in ethnic minority areas,” she told reporters at an Asia-Pacific summit in Hawaii.

Myanmar’s law on political parties amended this month, and endorsed by President Thein Sein, removes the condition that all parties must agree to “preserve” the country’s 2008 constitution, according to state media.

The wording has now been changed to “respect and obey”, it said — a small alteration but one that would allow the NLD to criticise and suggest changes to the constitution.

Myanmar expert Aung Naing Oo of the Vahu Development Institute, a Thai-based think-tank, said the NLD’s return to the political process would offer the country “a better relationship with the international community”.

“It is really, really important for Burma. It will be seen as a normal country for the first time in 23 to 24 years,” he told AFP, using Myanmar’s former name.

Suu Kyi, who was feted by thousands of supporters in August on her first political trip outside Yangon since she was freed, is expected to hold a press conference on Monday to mark the first anniversary of her release. — AFP

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister Sunday condemned a “preposterous” UN-commissioned report alleging war crimes in his country, revealing he stopped Canada raising it at a Commonwealth meeting.

Foreign Minister Gamini Peiris also confirmed Sri Lanka will host the next Commonwealth leaders’ meeting in 2013, saying that none of the 54-nation bloc raised the prospect of moving it during this year’s summit in Perth.

“There was no attempt whatsoever to revisit the issue relating to the venue,” he told reporters at the conclusion of the Perth meeting.

Ahead of Perth, Canadian premier Stephen Harper had raised concerns about Sri Lanka hosting the summit due to a UN panel’s allegations that the military massacred civilians in 2009 in the final stages of the Tamil rebellion.

Peiris said the report, commissioned by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, relied on anonymous, subjective evidence, dismissing its allegations that tens of thousands of civilians were slaughtered in the last days of the civil war.

“It is biased, it violates the rudimentary principles of natural justice, we reject it in its entirety,” he said.

“We have told all (Commonwealth) delegates of the reasons why we find the report totally unacceptable… it is a travesty of justice and preposterous.”

Peiris said Canada had attempted to raise the topic of human rights in Sri Lanka during a meeting of foreign ministers at the Perth summit but he successfully argued it was an inappropriate forum to discuss the issue.

“My submission to the chair and the delegates was that this was entirely inappropriate,” he said.

“I said that this was an attempt to politicise the proceedings… my submission was that far from strengthening the Commonwealth, this development would not augur well for the future of the Commonwealth at all.”

Peiris said he received support from 15 other countries and “the chair then decided that the matter could go no further”.

A number of countries, including Australia and Canada, have called for the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the panel’s report, which Ban forwarded to the rights watchdog last month.

Amnesty International said it was outraged that the Commonwealth bloc, comprising mainly former British colonies, had not pressed Sri Lanka on the issue in Perth and would hold its 2013 summit in Colombo.

“It is an absolute disgrace that Commonwealth leaders have agreed to hold their next meeting in Sri Lanka in spite of its appalling human rights record,” Amnesty official Claire Mallinson said.

“They are allowing war crimes to go uninvestigated, unpunished and unaccounted for.” — AFP