Yangon, Myanmar – Hoping to deflect outrage over images of soldiers gunning down protesters, Myanmar’s hard-line leader announced Thursday that he is willing to talk with detained democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi – but only if she stops calling for international sanctions.
Senior Gen. Than Shwe also insists Suu Kyi give up urging her countrymen to confront the military regime, state TV and radio said in reporting on the conditions set by the junta leader during a meeting this week with a special U.N. envoy.
The surprise move is aimed at staving off the possibility of economic sanctions and keeping Myanmar’s bountiful natural resources on world markets, while also pleasing giant neighbor China, which worries the unrest could cause problems for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The state media announcement came a few hours before U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari briefed U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in New York on his four- day trip seeking to persuade Myanmar’s military leaders to end the crackdown on democracy activists.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas in New York could not confirm that was what Than Shwe told Gambari on Tuesday.
Details of Gambari’s near hour-long meeting with the U.N. chief were not immediately disclosed.
State media gave new figures Thursday for the number of people arrested during last week’s bloody assault by troops on the biggest protests against the government in nearly two decades. The reports said nearly 2,100 people had been detained, with almost 700 already released.
The government has said 10 people were killed when security forces broke up the mass demonstrations, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of Buddhist monks who were leading the protests.
In reporting on Than Shwe’s meeting with Gambari, state media quoted the general as saying that “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has called for confrontation, utter devastation, economic sanctions and all other sanctions.” While Suu Kyi has previously voiced support for economic sanctions against the junta, she has not publicly called for the devastation of her homeland or the government.
“If she abandons these calls, Senior Gen. Than Shwe told Mr. Gambari that he will personally meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” the state media report said.
The report’s use of the title “daw” was a conciliatory gesture. “Daw” is a term of respect for older women in Myanmar, and it was an unusually polite reference to Suu Kyi, a far cry from the usual way state media denigrates her as a foreign puppet or worse.
