Aung San Suu Kyi Meets Burma General

by Ma Nguyen Tong

31-1-2002

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi secretly met one of Burma's senior leaders. According to diplomatic sources in Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi might even have met the country's head of state, General Than Shwe. It appeared to be the first meeting with a senior general for some time and was seen as a sign that the dialogue process could be on the verge of a significant break-through. The meeting again raised hopes that she might be released from house arrest in the very near future - at least before the next visit of the United Nations envoy to Burma, Razali Ismail, currently scheduled for early March 2002.

The Burmese military government had been in secret talks with the opposition leader, who was under house arrest, for more than a year. However during the last weeks of December 2001 and into the new year there had been growing fears that the dialogue process had stalled again.

Significant meeting

Diplomats in the Burmese capital Rangoon were certain that Aung San Suu Kyi secretly met either General Than Shwe or Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt when she left her compound during the early latter half of January. The opposition leader had seldom been permitted to leave her residence, although she had been allowed a string of visitors, since she was placed under house again in the middle of 1999.

Diplomats say it would have to had been a significant meeting for the opposition leader to come out of her home. She did not even attend the Martyr's Day ceremony in 2001 which marks her father's assassination. Despite more than a year of contact between Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese military leaders - mainly through a military intelligence liaison officer - there had been few tangible results from the dialogue process, which had been brokered by Mr Razali.

More than 200 political prisoners were released - but as international human rights groups pointed out, there were still more than 1,500 political prisoners in Burma's jails. Many diplomats in Rangoon feared the generals haf been dragging the process out with little intention of discussing real political reform.

Pace of change

The UN envoy though had been urging the military regime to step up the dialogue process. For this to happen, the two sides would have to start taking about substantive issues. The main obstacle to that remained the pace of the release of political prisoners and the lifting of the restrictions on the opposition leader herself. Mr Razali told the generals that Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest was a necessary pre-requisite for the dialogue process to progress.

As the talks between the two sides were being conducted in strict secrecy, it was impossible to know what was discussed at the meeting between Suu Kyi and the general. But the issue of political prisoners must have been high on the agenda. Aung San Suu Kyi had insisted all along that the remaining elected members of parliament would have to be freed before she would consider being released herself. UN sources said Aung San Suu Kyi and the generals had been considering a proposal that would allow the opposition leader to be freed, but with some continued restrictions - at least temporarily.