Myanmar may want stronger global ties, UN says

UN official Ibrahim Gambari (R) meets Myanmar junta leader Senior General Than Shwe. Picture / Reuters.

UNITED NATIONS - Myanmar appears to want to strengthen its ties with the international community, a senior UN official has said, after visiting the reclusive Asian state.

Ibrahim Gambari, UN undersecretary-general for political affairs said he encouraged the ruling junta to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as a sign it wanted to work more closely with other nations.

"There appears to be a willingness to turn a new page in the country's relations with the international community. What better signal than this one?" he told reporters.

While he could not say whether the authorities would free Suu Kyi this Saturday, when her current six-month detention order was set to expire, he said there had been a hint the country's leaders may be preparing to do so.

Police Major General Khin Yi said on Tuesday that her release would have little impact in Myanmar because support for her National League for Democracy (NLD) had fallen.

"I think there will not be rallies or riots in Myanmar if Suu Kyi is released," the police chief told reporters at a Southeast Asian police chiefs' meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

"I don't think there are a lot of supporters for her. Some members of the NLD have resigned."

Mr Gambari was the first senior UN official in two years to be allowed into the country formerly known as Burma. His nearly hour-long visit with the Nobel Laureate last weekend marked her first contact with an outsider in three years.

Ms Suu Kyi, 60, has been in prison or under house arrest since May 2003. The military has controlled Myanmar since 1962, ignoring the NLD's 1990 landslide election victory.

Mr Gambari said his three-day visit had enabled the United Nations to re-engage with Myanmar's leaders while drawing international attention to the country's "difficult situation".

It had opened the way to more talks on how to get aid into areas off-limits to relief workers.

He said it had also led to a government agreement, endorsed by the NLD, to work with the UN to make a national convention on a planned transition to democracy more representative of Myanmar's political and ethnic composition.

The convention, tasked with writing a new constitution, has suspended its work until October.

- REUTERS