European Union delegates here to assess Myanmar’s political reform process were due to meet on Tuesday with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and a top junta member, officials said.
The first EU delegation to visit Yangon since the May release of Aung San Suu Kyi would call on her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the afternoon, a party source told AFP.
”The EU delegation is expected to call on the NLD headquarters at 2:00 p.m. (0730 GMT) where they will meet with the NLD leadership,” the source said.
Aung San Suu Kyi was expected to attend the meeting, another party source said, but it was not yet known whether she would hold private talks with the delegation.
The EU has been among the staunchest advocates of political reconciliation in military-ruled Myanmar, a country subject to crippling sanctions by Brussels.
Experts have said a meeting with Suu Kyi would help the EU assess whether or not a change in sanctions status should be considered and under what conditions.
The popular leader said recently she would no longer oppose foreign aid to the impoverished country, so long as it clearly benefits the Myanmar people and falls within strict guidelines that ensure its transparency.
The NLD meeting would be followed by separate talks with number three in the Myanmar troika, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, a source close to the junta said.
The delegates are expected to raise the issue of human rights, following allegations by Thai-based Shan ethnic groups that Myanmar’s military committed systematic rape and murder.
Yangon has dismissed the allegations as ”preposterous
accusations”.
The delegation, who are being led by Danish foreign ministry regional director Carsten Nilaus Pederson, was scheduled earlier Tuesday to lunch with diplomats from several embassies, a Western embassy source said.
The three-day visit is the fourth official EU trip to the military-ruled state since 1999 and the first since Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was released from 19 months of house arrest.
The delegation has so far during this trip met with deputy foreign minister Khin Maung Win, representatives of various ethnic minority groups, non-government organisations and diplomats.
During the previous EU mission in March, the delegation pushed hard for prisoner releases, including that of Aung San Suu Kyi herself.
The current mission to Myanmar includes representatives from Denmark, which holds the EU revolving presidency, incoming presidency holders Greece, the European Commission, and the Council Secretariat which services the Council of Ministers.
The mission was due to depart early Tuesday evening. – Sapa-AFP