Myanmar rejects three-way talks
Foreign Desk Report

YANGON—Myanmar’s junta has rejected a UN proposal for three-way talks involving detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi following its crackdown on mass protests, state media reported Wednesday. The generals also rejected what they termed foreign or UN “interference” in their affairs, Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan told visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari during talks in the capital Naypyidaw.
Their stance is a blow to Gambari’s mission to push for democratic reforms after September’s bloody repression of protests led by Buddhist monks, which the junta says left 10 people dead while diplomats put the toll far higher. Gambari had proposed a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi and labour minister Aung Kyi, whom the junta appointed last month to liaise with her.
But Kyaw Hsan said “currently the tripartite meeting will not be possible,” the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported. Gambari met on Wednesday with Prime Minister Lieutenant General Thein Sein and foreign diplomats who were flown to Naypyidaw for the day.
The UN envoy will meet with Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday on his return to Yangon, where the Nobel peace prize winner remains under house arrest. “He will return to Rangoon (Yangon) tomorrow to meet with ‘The Lady,’” a Western diplomat told reporters.
Three senior members of her National League for Democracy will meet with Gambari early Thursday in Naypyidaw, the first time NLD members have visited the isolated new capital, party spokesman Nyan Win told reporters. The Western diplomat said Gambari would not, however, meet with junta head Senior General Than Shwe during this trip.
The UN said in a statement late Wednesday that the envoy gave Thein Sein a letter from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to pass on to the country’s most powerful general. He also pressed the prime minister on the need to work with the United Nations to help improve the situation in the impoverished nation.
“Mr. Gambari stressed that a return to the status quo before the crisis would not be sustainable,” the UN said, adding that dialogue with the opposition and the creation of a poverty reduction body would be steps in the right direction.
However, Gambari’s mission — his second since the crackdown — now appears unlikely to produce results, with the junta accusing the United Nations of bowing to US pressure to impose Security Council sanctions.
Kyaw Hsan said Gambari’s previous visit “did not bear fruit as we had expected” and was followed by further international sanctions. The minister said sanctions had not helped and insisted the junta would not be swayed by external pressure to bring about democratic reforms.