No mercy for UN envoy in Burma

November 7, 2007 - Burma's ruling junta has rejected UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari's bid for three-way talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit, official media says.

Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told Gambari such a meeting was premature and he warned tougher international sanctions on Burma would only make matters worse.

Burma will not bow to outside pressure. It will never allow any outside interference to infringe on the sovereignty of the state," state-run MRTV quoted Kyaw Hsan as saying during talks with Gambari in the new capital Naypyidaw.

The UN said Gambari "had very frank and extensive exchanges" with senior junta officials on the fourth day of a mission aimed at securing talks between Suu Kyi and the generals who crushed pro-democracy protests in late September.

He urged that dialogue "start without delay as an indispensable part of any process of national reconciliation and the lifting of restrictions on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political detainees as the necessary steps to that end", the UN office in Rangoon said in a statement.

The statement made no mention of Gambari's request for three-way talks involving himself, Suu Kyi and General Aung Kyi, who met the Nobel laureate for 75 minutes last month after he was appointed the junta's liaison minister.

Kyaw Hsan said Suu Kyi had not responded to the conditions set for direct talks with junta chief Senior General Than Shwe, which included ending "confrontation" and her support for sanctions and "utter devastation" - a term not defined.

"He asked Gambari to urge Aung San Suu Kyi to respond to it," MRTV said.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won a massive election victory in 1990 only to be denied power by the army, has said any negotiations should have no prior strings attached.

Gambari was due to meet other top junta members and brief the diplomatic corps in Naypyidaw on Thursday, but there was no word on an audience with Than Shwe.

Gambari expected to see Suu Kyi in Rangoon, where she met him twice during his last visit after soldiers crushed pro-democracy protests in September, triggering international outrage. He also met Than Shwe on that trip.

Rumours that Suu Kyi had fallen ill swirled around Rangoon, but NLD spokesman Nyan Win said the 62-year-old was "okay".

A source at Rangoon's Asia Tawwin Hospital said Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years in detention, had a minor operation to remove an ingrown finger nail and was returned to her lakeside home, where she is under house arrest.

The UN has said Gambari will stay in Burma as long as necessary to accomplish his mission, but his work has been complicated by the generals' move to kick out the UN's top resident diplomat for highlighting the country's economic crisis.

However, the regime agreed to a visit by UN human rights envoy Sergio Paulo Pinheiro from November 11 to 15, the UN said in a statement, the first time he has received a visa in four years.