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U.N. Official Meets With Myanmar's Suu Kyi
By AYE AYE WIN, Associated Press Writer
Sat May 20, 8:44 PM ET

YANGON, Myanmar - The U.N.'s top political official met Saturday with detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been barred from holding talks with foreigners for more than two years.



http://images.google.com/images?q=Aung+San+Suu+Kyi&hl=en

The U.N. confirmed that Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari met with Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been detained for 10 of the past 17 years � mostly under house arrest � but the U.N. statement offered no details on their talks.

Gambari arrived in Myanmar on Thursday to press the ruling military junta to restore democracy and cease human rights violations.

The visit is the first in more than two years by a high-level U.N. representative. The last foreigner to see Suu Kyi was U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, who saw her in March 2004.

U Lwin, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, said, "This is an improvement on the part of the authorities. I think this is progress."

Residents near Suu Kyi's villa in Yangon said they saw a black vehicle with tinted windows leave the compound and soon afterward pull into the guesthouse where Gambari was staying, about five minutes from her residence. The same vehicle later returned to her villa.

Earlier Saturday, Gambari met with the leader of the military junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, on human rights and prospects for restoring democracy.

In its statement, the U.N. said Gambari called on Myanmar officials to "engage in an inclusive political process for the benefit of the country and its people."

The United Nations has been one of the louder voices calling for democratic reforms in Myanmar, also called Burma, and the junta has responded by barring U.N. special envoys from the country.

The first came before her party, the National League for Democracy, won a landslide victory in 1991 elections which the junta has refused to endorse and instead says it is moving along its own path toward democracy and the framing of a constitution which has been in progress for more than a decade.

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Japan's Position on Myanmar Irks US
by P. Parameswaran
Sat Jun 3, 11:33 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States seems dismayed by key Asian ally Japan's decision to gang up with Russia and China in opposing UN Security Council action against military-ruled Myanmar.



Washington wants to introduce an unprecedented resolution at the council calling on Myanmar's generals to change their repressive policies, including pressuring them to free the country's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

To set the stage for such an action, the United States wanted the Myanmar issue to be formally discussed at the council for the first time.

While all the democratic nations in the 15-member council reportedly backed the US move, Russia, China and, particularly, Japan objected.

At a rare council briefing last week on Myanmar's political crisis, Japan said the situation in the Southeast Asian nation did not pose a threat to international peace and security, a key prerequiste for council action.

"Japan has made a big mistake," Michael Green, who until recently was US President George W. Bush's senior director for Asia policy, said, using unusually strong language.

"With this decision on Burma (Myanmar), Japan has lost the moral high ground," he said. "It is painful to see. On one side are China and Russia, which have increasingly repressed civil liberties and democracy over the past two years. On the other side stands every single democracy in the Security Council.

"One must wonder whether this error in judgment will have implications for Japans diplomatic standing in Washington and in Asia," Green said.

Unlike permanent veto-wielding members China and Russia, Japan is an elected council member without veto power. Yet, Tokyo's move is discomforting for Washington.

US diplomats have vowed to step up their campaign to press Japan and the others in the council to back Washington's resolution

"We believe the situation there warrants action by the Security Council, certainly an expression of concern and the desire to see the Burmese Government do the right thing, release political prisoners and move forward with a national reconciliation process and political process that would ultimately make a move towards democracy," said Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman.

"But we'll be discussing this with the Japanese, with other people as well. But again, we believe this is the right thing to do," he said.

Washington expects the resolution to "be introduced or at least circulated preliminarily sometime in the days ahead," Casey said.

Ibrahim Gambari, the UN secretary generals special envoy who visited Yangon recently, told members of the Security Council last week that Myanmar's junta had rejected his proposal to give economic aid in exchange for minimal steps toward a return to democracy, Green said.

Council members were also told details of the juntas alleged links with international drugs and human trafficking syndicates, forced dislocation of ethnic minorities, and destabilizing policies toward neighboring countries.

Yet, Japan's UN envoy Ambassador Kenzo Oshima sided with the Chinese and Russian delegations and argued that no further steps should be considered by the Security Council, Green said.

Japan's refusal to support putting Myanmar on the formal agenda of the Security Council also comes at a time when "even famously patient Beijing is getting annoyed with the hardheaded generals" in Yangon, said Dana Dillon, a senior policy analyst at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation.

Myanmar watchers in Thailand say that China was dismayed by the 2004 arrest and sacking of Myanmar's Prime Minister Khin Nyunt and is now looking for ways to restrain the junta's "worst excesses," Dillon said.

China, the junta's biggest patron, is affected by the flow of refugees, disease, and drugs from Myanmar, he said.

Furthermore, Myanmars uncontrolled logging is damaging Chinas reputation in the World Trade Organization, Dillon said.

Last month, China closed the China-Myanmar border to all timber trade. In response, members of Myanmar's army reportedly attacked Chinese migrant workers.