Aung San Suu Kyi meets UN envoy

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Daw Suu & Gambari at State Guesthouse, Rangoon, on March 8

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met Saturday with visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, one day after the nation’s junta rejected calls to include her in their election process.

She was taken in a convoy from her home, where she is under house arrest, to the nearby State Guesthouse, a military facility where Gambari has conducted most of his meetings since arriving here Thursday, witnesses said.

The Nobel peace prize winner has been confined to her home for 12 of the past 18 years, and is rarely allowed any contact with the outside world, although Gambari has been allowed to meet her on his two previous visits.

Myanmar officials said she began meeting with Gambari at around 4:15 pm (0945 GMT), a few hours after his talks with top leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Gambari has tried to foster a dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and the military in the aftermath of a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks in September, when the United Nations estimates at least 31 people were killed.

He was expected to press the regime to include the NLD in its plans to hold a constitutional referendum in May and multi-party elections in 2010.

The junta has banned any public speeches or leaflets about the referendum on the constitution, which would bar Aung San Suu Kyi from running in elections on the grounds that she was married to a foreigner, the late Briton Michael Aris.

Myanmar’s information minister, Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan, flatly rejected calls to amend the charter during talks with Gambari on Friday and accused the envoy of showing bias in favour of Aung San Suu Kyi.