YANGON (Reuters) - U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari will return to army-ruled Myanmar on Saturday to try to coax the generals into talks on reform with captive opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a diplomat said.
"We have heard Myanmar has given the green light to Mr. Gambari to come on November 3," a Yangon-based Asian diplomat told Reuters.
Gambari has been on a six-country Asian diplomatic tour to press neighbours -- especially India and China -- to take a tougher line against the regime after it crushed pro-democracy protests last month.
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United Nations special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari smiles during a news conference in New Delhi in this October 23, 2007 file photo. Gambari will return to army-ruled Myanmar on Saturday to try to coax the generals into talks on reform with captive opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a diplomat said. (REUTERS/B Mathur) |
On Wednesday, 200 Buddhist monks staged a march in central Myanmar for the first time since the crackdown last month.
The maroon-robed monks chanted prayers as they marched through the town of Pakkoku, where soldiers fired warning shots over the heads of monks early last month, triggering nationwide protests.
Gambari's schedule was not immediately known, but the Nigerian diplomat met junta chief Than Shwe and Suu Kyi during his last visit in early October.
"We think he is going is to be busier during this visit than his previous one," the diplomat said. That first trip resulted in the appointment of retired General Aung Kyi as a go-between for Suu Kyi and Than Shwe, who is widely known to loathe the 62-year-old Nobel laureate.
Aung Kyi held a 75-minute meeting with Suu Kyi last week, although it is not known what they discussed.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a 1990 election by a landslide only to be denied power by the military, which has ruled since a 1962 coup. She has spent 12 of the last 18 years in detention.
Copyright © 2007 Reuters
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