U.N. Sends Envoy Back to Burma
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JAKARTA, Indonesia — Struggling against Burma’s stubborn generals and neighbors skeptical of sanctions, a U.N. envoy returned to the region yesterday to push for negotiations between the military junta and an opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ibrahim Gambari , once foreign minister for a Nigerian military regime, is due to begin talks today with officials in Thailand before visiting Malaysia and Indonesia. All three belong to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is against imposing more sanctions on fellow member Burma.
Mr. Gambari also is scheduled to visit regional powers India, China, and Japan before returning to Burma for his second round of crisis meetings in two weeks.
He had planned to return to Burma in mid-November, but Secretary-General Ban told him to speed up the mediation effort after the U.N. Security Council last Thursday unanimously said it “strongly deplores” a violent crackdown that began in September . Burma has acknowledged that at least 10 people were killed, although activists and Western governments say they believe the toll was higher. Thousands of people were arrested. In his October 2 meeting with General Than Shwe, who is the senior junta leader, Mr. Gambari failed to persuade him to stop the bloody repression. It was almost a repeat of a failed mission last year, when the generals also stonewalled Mr. Gambari.
But international outrage over images of soldiers shooting unarmed demonstrators in September forced the junta to make a seemingly minor concession that the U.N. envoy may be able to leverage into significant progress. Amid American and European Union threats of new sanctions, such as a possible arms embargo, the generals named deputy labor minister Major General Aung Kyi to handle any talks with Ms. Suu Kyi. He is described as a moderate to whom fellow generals have turned to handle vexing image problems, such as allegations that Burma uses forced labor. The junta fed doubts about its willingness to reform by insisting that Ms. Suu Kyi must meet certain conditions, such as ending her support for sanctions against the regime, before any talks could begin.
Ms. Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been in detention for 12 of the past 18 years.
