YANGON: UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Myanmar Saturday for fresh talks with the government, officials said, less than six months after his last trip ended in deadlock. As with previous visits, Myanmar's military rulers have kept the UN diplomat in the dark over his itinerary in the country, saying only he would spend the entire trip in Yangon and meet with the information minister.
Myanmar’s government has shown no sign of willingness to embrace Gambari's mediation, failing to invite him to their remote capital in Naypyidaw during his last two missions here in August and March 2008.
However Nyan Win, spokesman for the opposition National League of Democracy (NLD), said Gambari was expected to meet with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his latest trip.
Aung San Suu Kyi surprised observers by refusing to meet with the Nigerian diplomat during his mission to Myanmar last August, a move interpreted as a snub after he had failed to secure any political reform in Myanmar.
The democracy leader has spent most of the last 19 years under house arrest at her lakeside house in Yangon, seeing only her personal doctor and sometimes her lawyer.
Gambari landed in the main city of Yangon at 9:35am (0305 GMT), UN and airport officials said. He left Yangon airport shortly after landing and was driven to his hotel in the city.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon asked Gambari "to continue his consultations with the government and other relevant parties," UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in a statement Friday confirming the trip.
Diplomats said the late confirmation from the United Nations was because Gambari's last visits had been deemed unsuccessful in negotiating any political reforms.
There was no indication of whether the issue of Myanmar's Rohingya ethnic minority would be on the agenda.
Human rights group Amnesty International called on Myanmar Friday to stop persecuting its Rohingya people, hundreds of whom were found adrift in open waters after attempting to seek refuge in Thailand.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the military government has never allowed them to take office.
The Myanmar government, which adopted a new constitution in 2008, says it intends to organise elections in 2010.
But the US, the EU and the United Nations have dismissed the lengthy proceedings as a sham because of the absence of the NLD party.
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