UN envoy set to meet with Myanmar’s top general

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Envoy to Myanmar has been told by authorities that he will be able to meet the South-East Asian nation’s top general on Tuesday, the United Nations announced today.

Ibrahim Gambari, who was dispatched by Mr. Ban to the region last week in response to the deteriorating situation in Myanmar, “looks forward to meeting Senior General Than Shwe,” UN Spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters in New York.

After arriving in Myanmar on Saturday afternoon, Mr. Gambari spent the evening in the new capital, Naypyitaw.

He was received on Sunday by the Acting Prime Minister, Lieutenant-General Thein Sein, along with the Cabinet Ministers for Information and Culture and the Deputy Foreign Minister.

Later that afternoon in Yangon, Mr. Gambari met for over an hour with opposition leader and Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. He also consulted with the UN Country Team and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Myanmar has recently witnessed a wave of peaceful demonstrations, which began last month to protest a surge in fuel prices and more recently have included many of the country’s monks.

In a telephone conversation today, the Secretary-General asked Mr. Gambari “to call on the Myanmar authorities to cease the repression of peaceful protest, release detainees and to move more credibly and inclusively in the direction of democratic reform, human rights and national reconciliation,” Ms. Okabe said.