By DPA
Hanoi : The UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari expressed concern Monday over fresh reports of arrests of opposition leaders by the military junta, and sought the help of the Vietnamese communist government to persuade the military regime in Myanmar to engage in dialogue.
Last week, Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy reported the arrest of at least one of its senior leaders. Other dissidents reported that a Buddhist monk and a labour-rights leader had been detained two months after the bloody crackdown on mass protests in September.
Talking to reporters here, Gambari said the arrests contradicted Myanmar’s own reports of progress following the crackdown and the release of 2,600 detainees and the junta’s overtures to Nobel peace laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Further arrests would run counter to that kind of spirit and that kind of report of progress. We hope that it will stop,” Gambari said. “You cannot give with one hand and take away with another.”
The UN envoy also said he met Myanmar’s Prime Minister General Thein Sein on the sidelines of last week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASAEN) summit in Singapore.
“I think I was able to convey the continued concern of the international community,” he said. “I hope to go back to the nation before the end of this year.”
In Hanoi, Gambari is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and would deliver a personal message from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, both congratulating Vietnam on its coming non-voting membership in the UN Security Council and also asking for assistance in further negotiations with Myanmar.