UN envoy meets with Than Shwe, scepticism between activists and Burmese
Yangon (AsiaNews) – After 3 days waiting, the United Nations special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, today met with the leader of the Burmese military junta, General Than Shwe in the new capital Naypyidaw. Details of the talks are not known, but according to a UN spokesman, Gambari invited the top General to “urgently halt the repression of peaceful protests and immediately release prisoners and proceed to a credible democratic reform, in respect of human rights and national reconciliation”.
The former Nigerian Foreign Minister arrived in Yangon on September 29th in a special mission in the wake of the violence used by the military government against monks who had been carrying out street protests for weeks. The following day he met with the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest since 2003.
For its part the Burmese government considers the crisis now well and truly under control and has even arrived at accusing the international community of involvement. The foreign minister, Nyan Win, speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York yesterday defined countries they maintain behind the crisis as “political opportunists”. “They present this campaign as a fight for democracy – he said – they decide to impose sanctions which slow down the countries economic development and keep the population in poverty”.
In the interim, security forces continue to prowl the streets of Yangon, the former capital, blocking all demonstrations and the leaking of information to the outside world. Overnight, even in Mandalay, the army raided monasteries and homes: Buddhist religious, citizens and members of the National League for Democracy (Nld) –according to diplomatic sources – were taken and transferred to unknown destinations. Observers in Yangon indicate Insein prison, the State Institute of Technology and the 7th Battalion Police Barracks, as some areas where prisoners are being amassed.
Those who have been officially arrested are in no better conditions. According to the Bbc many monks have been sent to prisons found in the remotest parts of the North. According to pro government sources, in Yangon alone, about 4 thousand monks have been detained. But confusion reigns regarding the toll of the repressions victims. According to official estimates only 10 people died, but human rights activists speak of up to 200 dead and 1000 disappeared.
Opposition supporters are not holding out hopes for Gambari’s visit is. “It will be a fruitless mission– says Zinn Linn, spokesman for the Burmese government in Bangkok – is they fail to make Than Shwe to meet Suu Kyi”. While David Mathieson - Myanmar expert for Human Rights Watch – hopes Gambari will not leave former Burma until the UN envoy has personally verified “were the disappeared demonstrators are and in what conditions they find themselves”.
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