UN envoy meets Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon (Roundup)

Sep 30, 2007, 12:35 GMT

Yangon - United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari met democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi Sunday in Yangon as part of his mission to assess the country's situation in the aftermath of last week's brutal crackdown on monk-led protests, UN sources said.

Gambari met Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May, 2003 for an hour at the State Guest House in Yangon. Details of their talks were not immediately available.

He arrived in Yangon Saturday and held brief consultations with government representatives at the airport before flying on to Naypyidaw, the ruling junta's hideaway capital, 350 kilometres north of Yangon.

In Naypyidaw he held talks with acting Prime Minister and Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, Minister for Information Brigadier General Kyaw San, Minister for Culture Major General Khin Aung Myint and Deputy Foreign Minister U Kyaw Thu.

'He conveyed a message from the (UN) Secretary-General,' a UN statement said. 'He looks forward to meeting Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, before the conclusion of his mission,' it added.

Than Shwe heads Myanmar's junta.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been kept under house arrest in Yangon for 12 of the past 18 years, is often cited as Myanmar's last hope for democracy in this South-East Asian nation which has been under a military dictatorship since 1962.

Gambari was dispatched to Myanmar to provide an assessment of the situation to the UN next week after last week's military crackdown on monks and their followers.

The UN is then to consider what action it can possibly take to bring about a reconciliation between the ruling junta and its abused people.

His visit has been greeted by the Myanmar people with a mix of hope and skepticism.

'Gambari will help,' a Yangon moneychanger says.

Others are less certain. Gambari last visited Yangon in May, 2006, when he was also allowed an interview with Suu Kyi. One week after his departure the junta slapped another year of Suu Kyi's detention term.

'The generals don't care about the opinion of other governments, they don't care about the opinion of their own people, and they certainly won't care about the clever advice of a UN diplomat,' a well-known Yangon author said under condition of anonymity.

In Yangon, the generals have reclaimed the streets after almost two weeks of monk-led protests which ended in a brutal crackdown that outraged the world community and left scores dead.

Soldiers were seen standing guard Sunday in front of the city's famed golden pagodas and major streets that just days ago were swarming with tens of thousands of protesters.

Near Yangon's five-star Traders Hotel, where some of Gambari's entourage have taken rooms, stood at least 20 soldiers with machine guns. At the street crossing in front of the hotel stood two troop transporters with another 15 to 20 men.

Sunday's state-run newspapers ran front-page stories about pro- junta marches in faraway places such as Kachin State, calling for peace, unity and solidarity.

Observers regard this as hackneyed propaganda coming after the past two months of nationwide protests which were sparked off by the regime's sudden decision to double diesel and petrol prices and increase natural-gas prices five-fold.

After suffering two years of double-digit inflation, people were incited by the sudden fuel hikes to a wave of small protests, first in Yangon, leading to the arrests of hundreds, that were then taken up by the Buddhist monkhood.

What first started as peaceful barefoot marches ended as the country's biggest anti-military demonstrations since 1988, when an army crackdown on protests left up to 3,000 dead.

The junta put its boot down on the monks' barefoot rebellion Wednesday, beating clergy and laymen protesters with batons and dispersing them with tear gas and rubber bullets. At times real bullets were fired on the crowds, killing at least ten, including a Japanese photographer.

Other sources claim that the casualties were much higher and that the killing continues.

The turmoil has taken a toll on Yangon's monasteries - once the lifeblood of this deeply Buddhist country.

Many monasteries have lost more than half their monks, either to arrests or to flight.

'Usually we have seven or more monks visiting us to receive alms in the morning. Yesterday there were none and today (Sunday) only two,' one Yangon resident said.