U.N. envoy meets with Myanmar junta chief, democracy leader in frenetic shuttle diplomacy | Deseret News
U.N. envoy meets with Myanmar junta chief, democracy leader in frenetic shuttle diplomacy
Published: October 2, 2007 12:00 am Updated: Oct. 2, 2007 7:39 a.m.
YANGON, Myanmar  After days of delays, Myanmar's reclusive junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, finally granted an audience Tuesday to a U.N. envoy hoping to broker an end to Myanmar's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
The government later permitted a second encounter between the diplomat and Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained Nobel laureate who has come to symbolize the yearning for democracy in Myanmar.
Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s special envoy, met Than Shwe in the junta's remote new capital, Naypyitaw, a U.N. statement said. It said he then flew to Yangon and talked to Suu Kyi.
The meeting with Than Shwe was expected but the one with Suu Kyi came as a surprise, raising hopes that Gambari's shuttle diplomacy was making progress.
The U.N. has said that Gambari's mission is to persuade the generals  who have provoked worldwide revulsion with last month's crackdown  to take the people's demand for democracy seriously.
While the envoy tried to broker peace, the junta scaled back the curfew from seven hours to six and security forces lightened their presence in Yangon, the country's main city.
It was unclear how many homes heeded calls for what activists are calling a "silent protest" against the junta.
The U.N. statement said Gambari's meeting with Than Shwe and his deputies "to discuss the current situation in Myanmar" lasted more than an hour. It said Gambari also met Suu Kyi for the second time during his four-day mission but gave no other details.
Gambari "has now left Myanmar and will return to New York to report to the Secretary-General (Ban Ki-moon) on the outcome of his mission," the statement said.