Special United Nations envoy meets with Burma's junta

RANGOON, Burma - A UN envoy met with Burma's military leader today in a bid to end the country's political crisis after a deadly crackdown on democracy advocates provoked global revulsion.

Ibrahim Gambari, the United Nation's special envoy to Burma, met with Senior General Than Shwe in the junta's remote new capital, Naypyitaw, said a foreign diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity and citing protocol. No details were available.

Security forces lightened their presence in Rangoon, the country's main city, which remained quiet after troops and police quelled mass protests last week. Dissident groups say up to 200 protesters were slain, compared with the regime's report of 10 deaths, and 6,000 detained.

Gambari has been in the country since Saturday with the express purpose of seeing Than Shwe about the violence. The leader had avoided him until today.

Than Shwe doesn't normally adhere to the usual diplomatic protocol. In previous sparring with the United Nations and other international bodies over human rights abuses, the regime has repeatedly snubbed envoys and ignored diplomatic overtures.

Instead of the meeting Gambari sought yesterday, he was sent to a remote northern town for an academic conference on relations between the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, diplomats reported, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The town of Lashio, where the conference was held, is 240 miles north of Naypyitaw, the secure, isolated city carved out of the jungle where Than Shwe moved the capital in 2005.

UN associate spokesman Farhan Haq earlier said Gambari would urge the junta "to cease the repression of peaceful protest, release detainees, and move more credibly and inclusively in the direction of democratic reform, human rights, and national reconciliation."

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States wanted to see Gambari convey a clear message on behalf of the international community "about the need for Burma's leaders to engage in a real and serious political dialogue with all relative parties."

He said that included talking with Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate who has been under house arrest for years. Diplomats say Than Shwe has an intense hatred for her.

Casey also urged China, India, and other nations around Burma to do more to pressure the junta to change.

In Rangoon, soldiers dismantled roadblocks in the middle of the city and moved to the outskirts, but riot police still checked cars and buses and monitored the streets from helicopters.

Most shops stayed closed and traffic was lighter than usual. After keeping Buddhist monasteries sealed off for several days because of their prominent role in the protests, authorities let some monks go out to collect food donations, but soldiers kept watch on them.

Protests against the government ignited Aug. 19 after it hiked fuel prices, but public anger ballooned into mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks against 45 years of military dictatorship.

Soldiers responded last week by shooting at unarmed demonstrators.

Opposition groups also say several thousand people were arrested, including many monks dragged out of their monasteries. Many demonstrators were reported held in makeshift prisons at old factories, a race track, and universities around Rangoon.

The reports could not be independently verified in the tightly controlled nation. About 70 detainees were released yesterday in Rangoon, according to Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based news magazine.

Many people yesterday in Rangoon believed the junta had defeated the biggest pro-democracy demonstrations since 1988, when another crackdown killed an estimated 3,000 protesters.

"The people are angry but afraid. Many are poor and struggling in life so they don't join the protests anymore. The monks are weak because they were subjected to attacks," said Theta, a 30-year-old university graduate who drives a taxi and gave only his first name.

An Asian diplomat said yesterday that all the arrested monks had been defrocked - stripped of their highly revered status - and were likely to face long jail terms. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.