DPA/Paris

French President Francois Hollande yesterday backed calls by Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for changes to Myanmar’s constitution, which bars her from becoming president.
At a press conference with Suu Kyi in Paris, in which he referred to Myanmar by its old name, Hollande said he was “very attached to seeing the democratisation process in Burma reach its objectives”.
These included “free elections in November 2015 and revisions to the constitution which allow the Burmese to freely express their choices,” he said.
Suu Kyi is touring European capitals to urge leaders to keep up pressure on Myanmar’s military-backed government to pursue the reforms it began in 2010 when she was released from 15 years under house arrest.
The 68-year-old Nobel Peace laureate said the Asian country was at a juncture that was “in many ways the most difficult of our democratic process.”
“The constitutional amendments, the ethnic tensions (between majority Buddhists and minority Muslims in Rakhine State) and the role of the army in Burmese political life are challenges of extreme importance for us,” she said.
Myanmar’s constitution, which was drafted by the military junta that ran the country from 1988 to 2010, allocates 25% of all seats to military appointees.
It also bars citizens with relatives of foreign nationality from becoming president - a provision seen as aimed at Suu Kyi, whose two sons by her late husband, Oxford professor Michael Aris, are US and British nationals.
Suu Kyi’s European trip comes almost two years after her first trip abroad in June 2012 following her release from house arrest. In Paris, she also met with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
Last week, she met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck in Berlin.