Singapore Daily Reports on Aung San Suu Kyi Talks With Burmese Minister

Oct 26, 05:12 AM

Current Headlines: Text of report by Singapore newspaper The Straits Times website on 26 October

[Report by Nirmal Ghosh: "Suu Kyi holds talks with junta official"]

Labour Minister is charged with opening a dialogue between junta and her

MYANMAR'S pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was yesterday taken from her residence in Yangon to a government guesthouse where she met the minister tasked by the junta to open a dialogue with her.

The 62-year-old Nobel peace laureate and leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), who has spent 12 of the past 18 years under house arrest or in prison, was later taken back to her lakeside house on Yangon's heavily guarded University Avenue.

'Today, relations manager Aung Kyi met Aung San Suu Kyi at a state guesthouse,' state TV said.

It showed a brief clip of the pair talking at a meeting that lasted a little over one hour.

French news agency AFP described the clip as a rarity in a country where Ms Suu Kyi has spent years out of the public's sight.

She was driven for a few minutes from her home to the government guesthouse where she held talks with newly appointed Labour Minister Aung Kyi between 2pm and 3.15pm, state-run TV said.

The pro-democracy leader last left her villa on Oct 2 when she met United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari at a military guesthouse in Yangon.

Professor Gambari met her twice and also held talks with junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe and others to seek ways out of Myanmar's crisis.

With General Aung Kyi's appointment, the junta said it hoped to achieve 'smooth relations' with Ms Suu Kyi.

Yangon was abuzz with the news yesterday afternoon.

The minister whom Ms Suu Kyi met is a retired general.

Gen Aung Kyi was given the responsibility of opening a dialogue between the junta and the pro-democracy leader shortly after the visit to Myanmar by Prof Gambari.

Gen Aung Kyi, seen by the diplomatic community as more reasonable than other top generals, was promoted to Labour Minister on Wednesday. He had been the deputy minister.

He has had some experience in dealing with sensitive issues related to the International Labour Organization.

Analysts, however, reacted cautiously to yesterday's news.

They are largely sceptical of the junta's intentions and suspect that its apparent concessions are merely tactical in the face of severe international pressure.

Mr Soe Aung, spokesman for the Thailand-based National Council of the Union of Burma, an umbrella group of some 30 organizations lobbying for democracy in Myanmar, told The Straits Times: 'We have not seen whether Senior General Than Shwe has dropped his conditions, and we also have not heard what the position is of the NLD and especially Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.'

Gen Than Shwe had offered to talk to Ms Suu Kyi on the condition that she drop her call for economic sanctions against the regime.

In recent days, in a reaction to the regime's latest bloody crackdown on protesters, economic sanctions have been tightened by, among others, the United States and Australia -and focused to affect specific figures in the junta.

Mr Soe Aung stressed that for any dialogue to make progress, the environment had to be conducive to genuine national reconciliation.

Ms Suu Kyi and the NLD are known to be open to what they say should be a genuine and unconditional dialogue between the junta and all political parties and ethnic groups.

The junta on Wednesday released several dissidents arrested during the crackdown, soon after agreeing to a visit by UN human rights rapporteur for Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro -the first time in four years that it has done so.

But it continues to hold between 2,000 and 3,000 people who were arrested during the crackdown.

Mr Pinheiro told reporters on Wednesday that, according to his information, between 30 and 40 monks, along with 50 to 70 civilians, may have been killed in the crackdown, which continued after Prof Gambari's visit.

Originally published by The Straits Times website, Singapore, in English 26 Oct 07.

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