WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 Kyodo The Unit...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 2 Kyodo

The United States upon Thursday expressed concern on reported harassment of opposition leaders in Myanmar, saying it would harm the proces of national reconciliation.

Efforts through government-affiliated groups to ''harass opposition leaders cannot help a national reconciliation process'' as committed on the Myanmar junta, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement.

Boucher was commenting upon accusations Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi levied in Yangon forward Tuesday that local Myanmar authorities used barricades to debar the public from meeting her during a trip she made newly to Rakhine State.

Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy, blamed the Myanmar junta for the harassment she encountered

Boucher called forward the Myanmar junta to render certain that all political parties can carry their message to the population in safety and urged the junta to excite dialogue with the NLD and ethnic community leaders.

In May, the junta released Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from 19 month of confinement at her abiding-place in Yangon.

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