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Burma: UN envoy meets top general as regime blames foreigners for violence

By MARCUS OSCARSSONLast updated at 12:41 04 December 2007

UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has met Myanmar junta supremo Than Shwe today, to try

to persuade him to end a crackdown on the biggest democracy protests in 20 years.The two met in the junta's remote new capital, Naypyitaw, two foreign diplomats said.

Also present were Than Shwe's no. 2, General Maung Aye, no. 3, General Thura Shwe Mann,and acting Prime Minister Thein Sein, who's fourth in the hierarchy.

The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

Slaughter: Executed monks have beendumped in the jungle

While Gambari was trying to brokerpeace, the junta's security forces

lightened their presence in Yangon, thecountry's main city, which remainedquiet after troops and police brutallyquelled mass protests last week.

The 9 pm -to-5 am curfew was scaledback to 10 pm to 4 am. Kept off thestreets, many residents launched a newform of protest Monday evening byswitching off their lights and turning offtelevision sets from 8 pm - 8.15 pmduring the nightly government

newscast.Dissident groups say up to 200

protesters were killed and 6,000detained in the crackdown, compared tothe regime's report of 10 deaths.

"Normalcy has now returned inMyanmar," Foreign Minister Nyan Wintold the UN General Assembly in NewYork, adding that security forces actedwith restraint for a month but had to

"take action to restore the situation."

Nyan Win made no reference to the deaths. Instead, he blamed foreigners for the violence.

"Recent events make clear that there are elements within and outside the country who wish toderail the ongoing process (toward democracy) so that they can take advantage of the chaosthat would follow," Nyan Win said.

Foreign Minister of Burma Nyan Win tells the UN in New York that foreigners are the causeof his ruling junta's brutal crackdown on protestors

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The UN Security Council, which endorsed the former Nigerian foreign minister's emergencyvisit, is hoping the mission will kickstart some sort of dialogue between the junta - the latestface of 45 years of military rule - and Suu Kyi.

After Than Shwe, Gambari was expected to have a second meeting with the 62-year-oldNobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, kindling hopes of some sort of "shuttle diplomacy".

But as attempts at talks continue, it was revealed that thousands of monks detained inBurma's biggest city will be sent to prisons in the far north.

About 4,000 monks have been rounded up in the past week as the military government hastried to stamp out pro-democracy protests.

WARNING: DISTRESSING IMAGE

Checkpoint: Police outside the house of opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi today

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Executed: The body of a Buddhist monk floats in a river

They are being held at a disused race course and a technical college.

Sources from a government-sponsored militia said they would soon be moved away fromRangoon.

The detained monks have been disrobed and shackled, according to sources quoted by BBC

Radio's Burmese service.

The reports follow claims from a former intelligence officer in Burma's ruling junta thatthousands of protesters have been killed and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have

been dumped in the jungle.

Public anger ignited on August 19 after the government increased fuel prices, then shiftedinto protests led by Buddhist monks against 45 years of military dictatorship.

Soldiers responded last week by opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The demonstrationshave now died down.

Burma's junta leader Than Shwe yesterday stalled a UN envoy, putting off hearinginternational demands for an end to the crackdown on democracy advocates.

News of the jailings comes after a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling juntarevealed the true extent of killings to clamp down on protests.

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Protests: But monks have now left the streets as news of brutal suppression and killingsspreads

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killedin recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

Mr Win said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men.

His defection will raise a faint hope among tens of thousands of Burmese who have fled tovillages along the Thai border.

They will feel others in the army may follow him and turn on their ageing leaders, SeniorGeneral Than Shwe and his deputy, Vice Senior General Maung Aye.

Source: Daily Mail Co UK

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-484903/Burma-UN-envoy-meets-general-

regime-blames-foreigners-violence.html#