UN envoy extends mission after talks with opposition
Emissary fails to meet main general but spends more than hour in discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon
Lockdown: Earlier he met several generals in the junta. UN sources said the generals dismissed the protests as the work of disruptive elements backed by foreign embassies. The situation on the ground was very different from the violent crackdown that prompted the UN to dispatch Mr Gambari at the end of last week. Rangoon was calmer yesterday, locked down effectively by thousands of police and soldiers who were searching cars and buses at roadblocks.
Campaigners warned against expecting too much from the UN. They pointed to soothing noises Mr Gambari made last year after the junta assured of progress that turned out to be illusory. Without the UN security council’s firm commitment to set a timeframe for the regime to begin talks about democracy, backed by the looming threat of international economic sanctions, Mr Gambari would be toothless, they said. "Right now Ibrahim Gambari doesn’t have the clout to say this is the deadline and unless there is action by that date there will be consequences," said Mark Farmaner, director of the pressure group Burma Campaign UK.
Bush said "I urge the Burmese soldiers and police not to use force on their fellow citizens. I call on those who embrace the values of human rights and freedom to support the legitimate demands of the Burmese people. At the White House the Spokesperson was asked if Bush was reaching out directly to countries like China and India, the two most influential neighbors of Myanmar, with a view to applying pressure on the regime in Yangon. "Obviously, we’ve, working through Mr. Gambari, the UN envoy, who is working with the international community. He’s on his way there. He’ll be there tomorrow," Dana Perino, the Press Secretary, replied.
YANGON (AFP) — UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, sent to Myanmar to express outrage over the crackdown on anti-government protests, has been forced to wait until Tuesday to meet junta leader Than Shwe, the regime said.
Gambari made his second trip in two days to the country’s new and remote capital Naypyidaw, hoping to see the reclusive general. But officials said he was taken elsewhere for a political workshop instead.
The secretive regime, which in the past has often frustrated efforts by other UN envoys to visit the country, is facing intense international criticism over its suppression of the protests, which left 13 dead and hundreds arrested.
Gambari was allowed to meet with detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for more than an hour Sunday in Yangon to discuss anti-government protests that have rumbled since mid-August but turned into a mass movement last week.
But after going to Naypyidaw with hopes of meeting the junta leader Monday, the envoy was taken on a government trip to Lashio, nearly 400 kilometres (250 miles) northeast of the capital, for a workshop on EU-Asian relations.
He would return to the capital on Tuesday to meet with Than Shwe, the official said.
Myanmar’s protests have lost steam as security forces clamp down, killing over a dozen and arresting as many as 1,000 people involved in the recent street protests that have grabbed global headlines. Now there are indications that the ruling State Peace and Development Council’s (SPDC’s) top two generals are at loggerheads over how to proceed in the aftermath of the crackdown.
SPDC second-in-command General Maung Aye reportedly opposed using force against the tens of thousands of monks who took to the streets, bringing him into conflict with Senior General Than Shwe, according to sources close to Maung Aye. Some soldiers in the old capital of Yangon and the city of Mandalay last week reportedly refused to obey their senior officers’ commands to attack or shoot at protesting monks, according to diplomatic sources in Yangon. Several aid workers in Mandalay reportedly witnessed soldiers there refusing to open fire when ordered by commanding officers.
General Than Shwe, the SPDC’s top general, personally gave the orders to the local commanders in Yangon to shoot into the crowd, a military source told Asia Times Online. "The two main commanders in Yangon have told their subordinates that the senior general directly ordered the attack last week," he said. That shoot-to-kill policy has backfired on the junta, with international condemnation coming from the West as well as neighboring countries included in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member.
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