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NEWS- UN Special Envoy Arrives in M
UN Special Envoy Arrives in Myanmar for Talks
Reuters
20-JAN-98
YANGON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - A
United Nations special envoy
arrived in Yangon on Tuesday for
a three-day visit aimed at prodding
Myanmar's (Burma's) ruling junta
towards democracy and
encouraging dialogue with
opposition leader Aung San Suu
Kyi.
Alvaro De Soto, who arrived from
Singapore, was likely to urge the
ruling State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC) to
speed up the drafting of a new
constitution and to hold elections
as soon as possible, analysts said.
De Soto is a special envoy of UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan,
who arranged the visit after
meeting Myanmar's prime
minister, Senior General Than
Shwe, at a regional summit in
Kuala Lumpur last December.
The envoy was scheduled to meet
Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw on
Wednesday and hold separate
talks with Suu Kyi, who leads the
National League for Democracy
(NLD).
He was expected to urge the
SPDC to hold a dialogue with Suu
Kyi to help bring lasting peace to
the country, one analyst said.
The SPDC has repeatedly refused
to hold direct talks with Suu Kyi
since she was released from six
years of house arrest in July
1995. It has also limited her
political activities.
NLD members declined to
comment on De Soto's planned
meeting with Suu Kyi.
But exiled Myanmar opposition
activists in Bangkok said the NLD
was against new elections and
instead wanted the junta to
recognise the results of the 1990
national election, which the NLD
won by a landslide.
The military ignored that result
and has kept a tight grip on power
ever since.
``The NLD and our organisation
share the political stance that we
do not want to have new elections.
We want the military regime and
the UN to recognise the 1990
election,'' said Aung Naing Oo,
secretary general of the All Burma
Student's Democratic Front
(ABSDF).
``Maybe Mr. Annan has made a
mistake. Why should we have a
new election when a valid election
was already organised in 1990?''
Aung Naing Oo told Reuters.
In an open letter to De Soto, the
ABSDF urged the envoy to ask
the government to re-open
universities and colleges recently
closed because of student unrest.
``Continued closures will
adversely affect Burma's
(Myanmar's) development and
result in further animosity between
the students and the regime,'' it
wrote.
It also asked De Soto to raise the
question of the more than 1,000
political prisoners held by the
military and to seek their release.
The ABSDF urged De Soto to
press the government to hold
dialogue with Suu Kyi and other
Myanmar ethnic group leaders to
foster national reconciliation.
^REUTERS@ Reut02:49
01-20-98 SLUG:
BC-MYANMAR-UN