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| Southeast Asia |
| U.N. envoy seeks talks with Myanmar generals |
| 2007-09-30 |
| A U.N. special envoy arrived in Myanmar today for talks with the country's military rulers, whose ruthless crackdown on anti-government protesters has sparked international outrage. The streets of Myanmar's main city, Yangon, were virtually empty of demonstrators for the first time in nearly two weeks and devoid of the gunfire and chaos that marked three days of violent suppression by soldiers and police. Security forces continued to patrol and seal off parts of the city, including the monasteries whose monks spearheaded the protests. After landing in Yangon this afternoon, U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari immediately traveled to the new capital of Naypyidaw, about 240 miles to the north, where the generals who rule Myanmar live in relative isolation from the people. Details of Gambari's schedule were not available, nor was it clear whether he would be allowed to visit Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and pro-democracy leader who has lived under house arrest for most of the last 18 years. "I expect to meet all the people that I need to meet," Gambari told reporters in Singapore before departing for Myanmar, also known as Burma. He did not elaborate. In Washington, Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, urged Myanmar's leaders to give Gambari "access to all those he wishes to meet with, including religious leaders as well as Aung San Suu Kyi." Analysts question how much Gambari, a former foreign minister of Nigeria, can achieve in discussions with an iron-fisted junta that has repeatedly shown itself impervious to outside pressure. His mission to Myanmar reflects the growing international concern and anger arising from the generals' brutal clampdown on protesters, in which the government acknowledges that 10 people have been killed. Diplomats and dissident groups estimate the true death toll to be many times that figure, possibility as high as 200. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 So what will they talk about? Will they offer the Junta a position on the UN "Security counsel"? |
| Posted by: newc 2007-09-30 03:35 |
| #2 Gambari just wants more stamps on his passport and a change in his luncheon menu. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-09-30 02:46 |
| #1 Analysts question how much Gambari, a former foreign minister of Nigeria, can achieve in discussions with an iron-fisted junta that has repeatedly shown itself impervious to outside pressure. Ummmmmmm...nothing? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2007-09-30 00:24 |