NEWS - UN Official Leaves Myanmar a

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Subject: NEWS - UN Official Leaves Myanmar after Dialogue Mission

UN Official Leaves Myanmar after Dialogue Mission

YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official left Myanmar Monday
after a delicate five-day mission aimed at promoting dialogue between
Yangon's ruling military and the beleaguered opposition led by Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. 

Assistant U.N. secretary-general for political affairs Alvaro de Soto
held talks with top officials from the governing State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), Suu Kyi and other political parties that
represent ethnic minorities, during the trip. 

De Soto, who traveled as an emissary of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, went to Myanmar following a request to Annan from the U.N.
General Assembly to try to end Myanmar's isolation by persuading the
government to negotiate with the opposition National League for
Democracy (NLD), led by Suu Kyi. 

"He leaves Yangon ... in order to report to the Secretary-General. The
Secretary-General will shortly submit a report to the U.N. General
Assembly on his mandate of good offices concerning Myanmar," a U.N.
statement issued in Yangon said. 

The U.N. assembly, as well as Western countries led by the United States
and the European Union, has condemned Myanmar for severe human rights
violations ranging from forced labor to torture of prisoners, mainly
students, professionals and academics. 

De Soto last traveled to Myanmar a year ago at which time he raised the
possibility of World Bank development aid if the government initiated a
dialogue with the opposition. 

So far the military junta has refused to negotiate with Suu Kyi's party
unless she disbands a committee designed to represent parliament, a
challenge to its rule. 

The NLD won the country's last election in 1990 but the military ignored
the results and has since tried to silence the party through arrests and
intimidation. 

De Soto met Suu Kyi and top NLD officials twice during his trip, but she
and the party have not commented on the meetings. 

He also met Foreign Minister Win Aung. Official media has made scant
mention of the trip, and only reported De Soto's meeting with Minister
in the Office of the SPDC, Brigadier General David Abel, and said
discussion centered on Myanmar's social and economic progress and the
provision of UNDP assistance. 

Khun Tun Oo, chairman of ethnic minority party the Shan Nationalities
League for Democracy, told reporters that in a meeting with De Soto his
group had provided information about the political situation in the
country. 

"With regards to breaking the current political deadlock, we told him
that the ball is in the court of the SPDC government," Khun Tun Oo said.