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Reuters-Myanmar postpones visit by



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Reuters-Myanmar postpones visit by top U.N. diplomat 

Myanmar postpones visit by top U.N. diplomat
05:49 a.m. Sep 09, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government has postponed a
visit by a senior U.N. official aimed at encouraging political
liberalisation in Myanmar, a U.N. source said on Thursday.

The Yangon-based source said Assistant Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto, the
U.N.'s second-ranking official for political affairs, had been due in
Myanmar around the middle of this month.

``The mission has been postponed by the government. I wouldn't say
cancelled -- they want him to come at some later date,'' said the source,
who did not want to be identified by name, adding that no explanation had
been given for the decision.

The Yangon government did not immediately respond to a request for comment
on the issue.

De Soto visited Myanmar last November as a special representative of U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and raised the possibility of development aid
if the government were to open a dialogue with the country's main opposition
party.

The postponement of his visit comes as Myanmar has tightened security
countrywide to thwart a call by dissidents in exile for a national uprising
starting from Thursday.

A diplomat called the postponement ``very peculiar.'' ``I don't know why
they would have scheduled something for this time, then shortly before it
have postponed it.''

Myanmar said earlier this year it was willing to accept de Soto's mission,
but also said it was not interested in aid with political strings attached.

Myanmar says it will not enter a dialogue with the opposition National
League for Democracy until the party led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi disbands a committee it established last year to represent
parliament in a challenge to military rule.

The NLD won Myanmar's last election in 1990 by a landslide but the
government ignored the result and has since tried to silence the party
through a campaign of arrests and intimidation.