By DPA
Yangon : United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari met democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi Sunday in her home here as part of his mission to assess the situation in Myanmar in the aftermath of last week’s brutal crackdown on monk-led protests, government sources said.
Details on the outcome of the meeting were not immediately available.
Gambari arrived in Yangon Saturday, but after brief consultations with government representatives at the airport was flown to Naypyidaw, the ruling junta’s hideaway capital, 350 km north of Yangon.
After reportedly holding talks with Myanmar’s military chief, Senior General Than Shwe, Gambari returned to Yangon Sunday and was immediately granted talks with Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May 2003.
Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been kept under house arrest in Yangon for 12 of the past 18 years, is often cited as the last hope for democracy in this South-East Asian nation which has been under a military dictatorship since 1962.
Gambari was dispatched to Myanmar to assess the situation after last week’s military crackdown on monks and their followers and report back to the United Nations next week before the world body considers what action it can possibly take to bring about a reconciliation between the ruling junta and its abused people.
His visit has been greeted by the Myanmar people with a mix of hope and scepticism, depending on who you talk to.
“Gambari will help,” a Yangon moneychanger said.
Others are less certain. Gambari last visited Yangon in May 2006, when he was also allowed an interview with Suu Kyi. One week after his departure, the junta slapped another year of Suu Kyi’s detention term.
“The generals don’t care about the opinion of other governments, they don’t care about the opinion of their own people, and they certainly won’t care about the clever advice of a UN diplomat,” said one Yangon intellectual, a well-known author who asked that his name not be used.
In Yangon, the generals have reclaimed the streets after almost two weeks of monk-led protests that ended in a brutal crackdown that outraged the world community and left scores dead.
Soldiers were seen standing guard Sunday in front of the city’s famed golden pagodas and major streets that just days ago were swarming with tens of thousands of protesters.
Near Yangon’s five-star Traders Hotel, where some of Gambari’s entourage have taken rooms, stand at least 20 soldiers with machine guns. At the street crossing in front of the hotel stand two troop transporters with another 15 or 20 men.
Sunday’s state-run newspapers ran front-page stories about pro-junta marches in faraway places such as the Kachin State, calling for peace, unity and solidarity.
Observers regarded this as hackneyed propaganda coming after the past two months of nationwide protests which were sparked off by the regime’s sudden decision to double diesel and petrol prices and increase natural-gas prices five-fold.
After suffering two years of double-digit inflation, people were incited by the sudden fuel hikes to a wave of small protests, first in Yangon, leading to the arrests of hundreds, which were then taken up by the Buddhist monkhood.
What first started as peaceful barefoot marches ended as the country’s biggest anti-military demonstrations since 1988, when an army crackdown on protests left up to 3,000 dead.
The junta put its boot down on the monks’ barefoot rebellion Wednesday, beating clergy and laymen protesters with batons and dispersing them with tear gas and rubber bullets. At times real bullets were fired on the crowds, killing at least ten, including one Japanese photographer.
Other source claim that the casualties were much higher and that the killing continues.
“A colleague of mine who works at the Nico Hotel was shot Saturday night for being out after the curfew,” said one hotel worker. The 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew is in place for the next two months.
The turmoil has taken a toll on Yangon’s monasteries, once the lifeblood of this deeply Buddhist country.
Many monasteries have lost more than half their monks, either to arrests or to flight.
“Usually we have seven or more monks visiting us to receive alms in the morning. Yesterday there were none and today (Sunday) only two,” said one Yangon resident.