Myanmar will let Suu Kyi meet followers

The walls surrounding pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi opened a crack Thursday when the military leaders of Myanmar, who have kept her in isolation for 12 of the last 18 years, said they would allow her to meet with officials from her party and to prepare for talks with the government.

This morning, she was taken from her home to a meeting with junta member Aung Kyi, the labor minister, at a government guest house, the Associated Press reported from Yangon.

“In the interest of the nation I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success,” Suu Kyi said Thursday in a statement released on her behalf by United Nations envoy Ibrahim Gambari after he ended a six-day visit to Myanmar.

Previously, the government said it would not negotiate with Suu Kyi unless she dropped her calls for international sanctions against Myanmar. It was not clear whether she had agreed to do so, or whether the regime had withdrawn that precondition.

The moves were the most significant progress to come from Gambari’s latest effort to persuade the government to engage with opposition parties instead of cracking down on peaceful protests. Although he was able to meet officials and Suu Kyi for the second time since a bloody crackdown in September, he was snubbed by the top leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe. The government also did not release political prisoners and civilians, as Gambari had asked.

An hour before his departure Thursday, Gambari met Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.

“We now have a process going which will lead to a dialogue between the government and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” Gambari later told reporters in Singapore. “Such a dialogue is a key instrument in promoting national reconciliation and the goals of peace and democracy and full respect for human rights in Myanmar,” he said.

Gambari will report on his visit to the Security Council next week, and plans to return to Myanmar, also known as Burma, in the next few weeks.

“The sooner a dialogue can start, the better for Myanmar,” he said.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been under house arrest for four years, and has spent 12 years in detention since her party, the National League for Democracy, won the 1990 elections and more than 80% of seats in the parliament. The regime overturned her victory. She has not been allowed to talk to members of her party for three years.

Than Shwe reportedly refuses to even say Suu Kyi’s name. Gambari has said that he refers to her simply as “the lady.”

But the government’s agreement to negotiate with Suu Kyi and other opposition leaders is a sign of conciliation after intense international pressure over its mass arrests and violent crackdown on monks and protesters.

In late October, in the first sign of a thaw, the labor minister met with Suu Kyi to discuss the possibility of further talks.

The United States increased its sanctions on the military regime in October.

“The U.S. is sorely disappointed that Than Shwe wouldn’t meet with Mr. Gambari,” National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Thursday. “This contradicts junta statements that they want to work with the U.N. We also urge the junta to hear Aung San Suu Kyi and to meet with her as she has asked.”

China has blocked discussion of Security Council sanctions, saying the political crisis was an internal matter and not one of international peace and security. But China has pressed Myanmar’s leaders behind the scenes to cooperate with the U.N. mediation efforts, and Southeast Asian leaders have publicly criticized the junta.

“We do realize there is tremendous expectation from the international community that there be progress made in Myanmar,” said Indonesia’s Ambassador R.M. Marty M. Natalegawa, who holds the Security Council presidency this month. “Signals of progress are what we are looking for.”

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maggie.farley@latimes.com