Myanmar opposition leader optimistic over recent talks

Aug 24, 2011, 11:16 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed optimism Wednesday about her talks over the weekend with the country's president, seen by some as a step towards rapprochement.

'I think the president has made a positive first step,' Suu Kyi said of her meeting Friday with Myanmar President Thein Sein in the capital Naypyitaw.

Suu Kyi made the remarks after holding talks with visiting United Nations human rights envoy for Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana in Yangon.

Quintana, who arrived Sunday for a five-day assessment of the new government's human rights performance, said he would disclose his findings on Thursday.

His visit comes at a time of an apparent thaw in relations between Suu Kyi and the pro-military government.

UN Secretary Genral Ban Ki-moon welcomed the meeting between Thein Sein and Suu Kyi, but called on the government to release some 2,100 political prisoners jailed by the previous junta.

The government is also under scrutiny for its dealings with the ethnic minorities, several of whom have been the target of brutal military campaigns by the former junta.

In a letter to Quintana Wednesday, a coalition of eight ethnic rebel groups called on the UN envoy to urge that the government restrain its soldiers from rape, burning villages, looting and confiscating properties.

The letter also asked that the envoy 'request tripartite peace talks immediately,' between the ethnic groups, the government and Suu Kyi.

Quintana was only recently granted a visa after being denied entry to the country since March, 2010, when he angered the then-ruling junta by urging a UN inquiry into Myanmar's human rights record.

Myanmar has been the target of economic sanctions by Western democracies since 1988, when an army crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators that left an estimated 3,000 dead.

The junta that ran the country between 1988 to 2010 has notched up one of the world's worst human rights records.

Although the current government is an elected one, it is packed with former military men.

The UN and Western nations have demanded clear signs that the new regime is committed to change, such as opening a dialogue with the opposition and ethnic minority groups that have been the target of military offensives.

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