UN official arrives for talks with

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Subject: UN official arrives for talks with SLORC

UN official arrives for talks with SLORC

RANGOON, May 7  - Senior UN official Alvaro de Soto arrived here Wednesday for 
discussions with members of the ruling junta on national reconciliation and 
human rights, an informed source said.
De Soto, the UN assistant secretary general for political affairs, spent the 
first day of his four-day visit sightseeing around Rangoon ahead of talks 
Thursday with Khin Nyunt, the junta's powerful intelligence chief.
He will also meet with foreign ministry officials and continue talks begun 
during his last visit in 1995 on national reconciliation and the 
implementation of a 1996 UN resolution on human rights in Burma, the source 
said.
The source, who requested anonymity, said de Soto would also meet Friday with 
opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and visit the tomb of U Thant, the 
former UN secretary general.
Further details of de Soto's visit, which has so far gone unannounced in the 
official press, were not immediately available.
In Phnom Penh last week, de Soto said that during his visit to Burma he would 
help in promoting dialogue between the ruling State Law and Order Restoration 
Council (SLORC) and the political opposition.
Last year the United States and the SLORC were unable to come up with an 
agreement on the terms of an official visit for de Soto.
De Soto is scheduled to leave Burma for Singapore on Saturday.

AFP