Myanmar rejects meeting with UN, Suu Kyi

Myanmar’s junta has rejected a three-way meeting with UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari and detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and refuses to bow to external pressure, state media said Wednesday.

The military government also rejected any foreign or UN “interference”, Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan told Gambari during a meeting on Tuesday.

Gambari proposed a meeting between himself, Aung San Suu Kyi and labour minister Aung Kyi whom the junta appointed last month to liaise with her.

But Kyaw Hsan said “currently the tripartite meeting will not be possible,” according to the New Light of Myanmar newspaper. It is Gambari’s second mission to Myanmar to push for reforms since a bloody junta crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in late September.

Gambari’s mission appeared unlikely to bear fruit as the junta accused the United Nations of bowing to US pressure to impose Security Council sanctions following the crackdown. Kyaw Hsan also said sanctions had not helped and insisted the junta would not be swayed by external pressure.

“I would like to point out that the previous pressures and sanctions did not provide any assistance to our democratisation process, and nor did the new pressures and sanctions of the US and EU,” he told Gambari.

Yangon, Wednesday, AFP