May 28 –– The State Department spokesman Richard Boucher castigated the Burmese junta for lack of progress on democratizing the country. “... on May 30th of 2003, elements of the Burmese junta orchestrated a brutal attack by government-affiliated thugs on the democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy supporters as they were traveling in that country. Now, one year later, the people of Burma are no closer to reconciliation or accountability for human rights abuses. This month also makes the 14th anniversary of the 1990 elections, which were won overwhelmingly by the National League for Democracy and the military juntas never recognized the results of those elections. So we take this occasion to call on the Burmese junta to take immediate steps towards a broad-based democratic government. We urge the government to release Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo and the other political prisoners in Burma and to undertake a substantive dialogue with democratic opposition and ethnic groups and begin a path towards genuine reconciliation.”