First Lady to Junta: Free Burma

The recent violent crackdown on peaceful protests in Burma have left the military regime friendless in the international community and reviled by its people, Laura Bush writes in the Wall Street Journal. The junta “must immediately stop their terror campaigns against their own people,” she writes, and then step down, making way for “a unified Burma governed by legitimate leaders.”

The First Lady outlines US efforts last week to put Burma on the UN Security Council’s agenda, while freezing junta assets. Bush sees signs that such monetary attacks are hitting the junta, which agreed to meet with imprisoned activist Aung San Suu Kyi if she stopped calling for economic sanctions. But sanctions will only grow, Bush says, advocating unconditional discourse. (More Burma stories.)