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U.N. envoy goes to Suu Kyi's house



U.N. envoy goes to Suu Kyi's house

AP, Rangoon, 11 October 2000. A U.N. envoy on a
mission to break Myanmar's political deadlock went
to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house
Wednesday after meeting with the leader of the ruling
military junta.

Reporters saw Razali Ismail being driven into the compound
of Suu Kyi's lakeside house in Yangon, where she is being held
under virtual house arrest. Details of the meeting were not
immediately available.

A United Nations Development Program official earlier said that
Razali will meet twice with Suu Kyi in a bid to reconcile the
differences between her pro-democracy National League for
Democracy and the junta.

Razali, a Malaysian diplomat who arrived in Yangon on Monday,
met earlier Wednesday with Gen. Than Shwe, head of the junta,
known as the State Peace and Development Council.

Details of Razali's meetings have not been made public, but the
Yangon-based UNDP official said ''the mission is progressing well
as scheduled.''

He said Razali will meet twice with Suu Kyi. The official spoke on
condition of anonymity.

Razali is scheduled to leave Myanmar, also known as Burma,
on Thursday.

Previous U.N. envoys, during their rare visits, have met twice with
Suu Kyi in order to convey information between government and
opposition.

In Bangkok, a senior Myanmar official attending a U.N. conference,
said the junta has no objection to Razali meeting with Suu Kyi.

''We are not against it,'' Col. Kyaw Thein, a senior military intelligence
officer, told reporters.

Myanmar's government refuses to hold talks with the National League
for Democracy if they include Suu Kyi.

Razali met on Tuesday with Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, chief of military
intelligence and the third-ranking general in the regime.

Before his departure, Razali is also scheduled to have a wrap-up
meeting with Foreign Ministry officials. On his arrival Monday he
met with Foreign Minister Win Aung as well as ministers of
interior and health.

There was speculation that Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate,
might object to seeing Razali while under virtual house arrest for trying
to exercise her political rights.

Suu Kyi's party was never allowed by the junta to take power after a
sweeping general election victory in 1990, and has suffered severe
repression since then.

Suu Kyi has been confined to her home and denied diplomatic
contact since Sept. 22 after she was blocked from traveling outside
the Myanmar capital on party business. The restrictions, also applied
to other leaders of her party, were still in place Wednesday.

Razali's mandate is to discuss issues related to a U.N. General
Assembly resolution adopted in December that urges Myanmar's
government to stop widespread human rights violations.

It also calls for Myanmar to ''take all necessary steps'' to restore
democracy, open a dialogue with Suu Kyi and other political leaders,
and to immediately release political prisoners.

Razali's predecessor as U.N. envoy to Myanmar visited the country
six times and made no headway.