A United Nations (UN) special envoy arrived in Myanmar on Friday to demand the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, reported to have been injured in a clash that prompted her detention and a crackdown on her party.
Razali Ismail began a five-day mission amid mounting pressure from the international community on the Myanmar regime to allow him to meet the Nobel Peace laureate. Foreign diplomats greeted him at Yangon airport.
Razali met with Foreign Minister Win Aung in the afternoon, and is scheduled to attend a dinner with foreign businessmen on Saturday evening, according to organisers who spoke on condition of anonymity. Further details about his plans were not immediately available.
Myanmar has not allowed access to Suu Kyi since the May 30 clash, saying only she is unhurt and in custody at ”a safe place”.
Offices of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party have been shut and other opposition figures detained.
The United States alleges evidence from the site of the clash in the country’s north suggested it was an ambush by pro-junta thugs — and that many more people may have been killed than the four cited by the Myanmar government.
”I’m not an investigator [but] I hope I will be able to get factual details of what took place after talking to all sides,” Razali, a Malaysian, said before departing for Myanmar. ”I am making a strong bid to get [Suu Kyi] released immediately.”
Razali, who in late 2000 helped broker reconciliation talks between Suu Kyi and the government, has pressed ahead with his first visit to the military state in seven months, although the junta has not guaranteed he will be able to meet with the NLD leader.
Razali declined to speak to reporters after arriving in Myanmar, saying only at his hotel: ”I’m in the hands of the government here.”
Exiled opposition figures in Thailand say Suu Kyi may have received head injuries in the violence, which they say left up to 70 people dead. They allege the clash was planned by the junta to justify a crackdown on the NLD.
US officials said on Thursday that some of those claims were corroborated by diplomats who visited the scene.
”Circumstances and reports from individuals in the region indicate that the attack was conducted by government-affiliated thugs,” US State Department spokesperson Philip Reeker said in Washington.
”The debris remaining at the scene suggests a major clash, which could easily have resulted in serious injuries to large numbers of people.”
A senior member of Suu Kyi’s party said that in the past three days at least four opposition politicians who work closely with Suu Kyi have been taken from their homes in Yangon by authorities.
International human rights group Amnesty International said on Friday it had received reports that other NLD members had been detained this week in central and northern Myanmar, and that it is gravely concerned about more than 100 people missing since the violence.
The crackdown appears to have increased the possibility of more international sanctions against Myanmar, which already faces limited economic and diplomatic restrictions in its dealings with Western nations.
Leading US lawmakers on Wednesday called for new sanctions, including a ban on exports from the Asian nation.
If Razali is not permitted to see Suu Kyi, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said, Myanmar’s authorities ”must recognise that there will be consequences.”
US, European and Japanese diplomats greeted Razali at the airport. He has not been met by diplomats at the airport on previous visits.
Razali last visited Myanmar in November 2002, and military authorities have since rejected four of his requests to return to the country, diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
The reconciliation talks brokered by Razali started more than two years ago had provided hope that the country’s political impasse could be bridged, but the dialogue reached a standstill after Suu Kyi was released from 19 months of house arrest in May 2002.
The stalemate dates back to 1990, when Suu Kyi’s party’s won the general election but was blocked by the military from taking power.
The May 30 violence has all but dashed hopes of reconciliation. Tight media controls and the remote location of the clash in northern Myanmar made it difficult to confirm what happened in last week’s violence, which the junta says was sparked when Suu Kyi’s motorcade drove through a crowd of thousands of government
supporters.
But a US Embassy official said that American diplomats who visited the site reported seeing homemade weapons that appeared to have been made in advance, suggesting a planned ambush rather than an impromptu clash.
”What they found corroborates eyewitness reports circulating of a premeditated ambush on Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
The two diplomats also found signs of ”great violence”, including bloody clothing and smashed glass, suggesting the death toll was far higher than four, the official said.
The official would not detail all the information that was gathered but said it included photographs and physical evidence.
Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her nonviolent struggle to promote democracy.
World leaders, including US President George Bush, have demanded Suu Kyi’s release. Even some of Myanmar’s Asian neighbours who usually steer clear of criticising the regime have expressed dismay over the current situation. – Sapa-AP