UN envoy awaits meeting with Burmese junta chief
Yangon (AsiaNews) – The UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari has travelled for a second time to the new capital Naypyidaw in order to meet with the Junta chief Than Shwe, on a mission to halt to the violent repression of these past weeks and open up a path to dialogue and reconciliation in the country, which has been dominated for over 45 years by a military dictatorship.
Gambari had already travelled yesterday to Naypyidaw, but only met with the second in command: Deputy Prime Minister Thein Sein; minister for information Kyaw Hsan; minister for culture; Khin Aung Nyint.
Yesterday in Yangon Gambari met for over an hour with the democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi who after her landslide victory in 1990 elections has spent the last 12 years in prison or under house arrest.
It is not clear why Gambari did not meet with Shwe, for health reasons – the top general is 74 – or because of open contempt of the international community.
Meanwhile 15 thousand soldiers have been fielded in Yangon virtually suffocating the recent protests. Security forces have sealed off two pagodas at the heart of protests and kept away the monks who led them, by raiding monasteries and hauling monks away in trucks or penning them up inside. There are soldiers on every street corner and police are carrying out body checks on anyone carrying a bag or camera.
In the interim, at least 1000 people were taken from the villages in the North East and brought to Kengtung to train them in holding pro junta demonstrations.
In the recent violence, during which the soldiers shot on protesters killing at least 13 people, over 700 monks and 500 civilians throughout the country have been arrested.
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