United Nations envoy Razali Ismail said on Monday he was hopeful of being allowed to see detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi after an ”encouraging” meeting with two of Myanmar’s most powerful generals.
Razali had been poised to cut short his mission to Myanmar if he was refused permission to see the Nobel peace laureate — taken into custody more than a week ago after violent clashes between her supporters and a pro-junta mob.
But he said after talks with army chief Deputy Senior General Maung Aye and military intelligence boss General Khin Nyunt that he was making progress in his twin goals of securing a meeting and pushing for her release.
”I am encouraged by my meeting today,” he told reporters. ”I am hoping I’ll be able to fulfil one or two of the objectives of my visit.”
”I’m not leaving today,” he added, settling speculation that the visit which began on Friday and was due to end around noon on Tuesday may be terminated.
The meeting with the two generals, which took place at the heavily guarded Zeyar Thiri Beik Man military headquarters in Yangon, lasted only 10 minutes, said a source close to the regime.
Junta leader Senior General Than Shwe is on a trip outside the capital and has not seen Razali, who brokered landmark contacts between the regime and the opposition leader in October 2000.
The government’s reluctance to allow Razali to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi is viewed with grave concern, in light of eyewitness reports denied by the junta that she was injured in the head and shoulder in the May 30 violence.
”Her health is beginning to be a serious concern to us. A real focus at this point is determining her well-being,” said a Western diplomat in Yangon.
Other observers raised fears that the junta could refuse Razali a meeting at the last moment on Tuesday, depriving him of the opportunity to depart early in protest.
”There is a possibility that he is being spun along a bit because from the regime’s point of view they would not want him to be able to leave early which would reflect on an unsatisfactory visit,” said another diplomat.
Up to 100 people are feared to have been killed in the brutal confrontation in northern Myanmar, where Aung San Suu Kyi had been making a political tour to promote her National League for Democracy (NLD).
Myanmar authorities for the first time on Sunday denied rumours that 76-year-old NLD vice-chairperson Tin Oo was killed in the melee, saying that he was being held in jail in Sagaing division near the India border.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday it had had no response to its request for access to Aung San Suu Kyi, who is being held at a military camp outside the capital.
”We have made the request and we are still waiting to get the answer,” said the ICRC’s deputy regional head, Magne Barth.
The United States has led global outrage over the detentions and a wider crackdown on the NLD, which has seen its offices closed down nationwide and its leadership put under house arrest.
After claiming that Aung San Suu Kyi was the victim of a ”premeditated ambush” carried out by ”government-affiliated thugs,” it expanded its visa blacklist and threatened further sanctions against the Yangon regime, which has never recognised the results of the 1990 elections easily won by the NLD.
In a sign that the junta will not back down in its latest confrontation with the pro-democracy opposition, it has blamed Aung San Suu Kyi for the violence and accused her of smearing the country’s reputation.
”With the assistance of foreign nations, they are committing sabotage acts… and manufacturing accusations to tarnish the image of the state”, Khin Nyunt said in a weekend speech reported by the state media. – Sapa-AFP