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YANGON - UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari is set to meet Myanmar's ruling generals on Sunday to convey worldwide outrage over a violent crackdown on anti-government protests and seek a way out of the crisis.
As he waited in the official capital Naypyidaw, security forces in the main city Yangon maintained their grip, blockading monks who have led the protests and quickly dispersing any sign of fresh rallies.
Four days of massive security operations have left at least 13 people dead and hundreds arrested, after the military government cracked down on weeks of protests that had escalated into the biggest challenge to their hardline rule in 20 years.
"We are hoping that Gambari will be able to come up with some solution acceptable to the military," one Yangon-based political analyst told AFP.
Gambari, who was dispatched by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, arrived in Yangon on Saturday and headed straight to Naypyidaw, where he was expected to see military
supremo Senior General Than Shwe.
His itinerary has not been released and on Sunday the state media did not carry any news of his meetings.
The international community has urged Myanmar's military to let him see democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest in Yangon.
Sources said a government guest house where the two met last year was being prepared Sunday, in a sign a meeting could be on the cards.
"There must be a result from this visit," said Gambari's predecessor as UN special envoy, the veteran Malaysian diplomat Razali Ismail.
Gambari "must get a promise from the military that they will not shoot the people who express their views. We cannot let the people down," he told AFP.
"The people should be allowed to march on the streets and protest," Razali said. "The economic policies of the junta are wrong. It has not benefited the people."
The protests first erupted last month after a massive hike in fuel prices, but really took off two weeks ago with the emergence of the Buddhist monks on the front line and drew up to 100,000 people onto the streets last week.
However a suffocating security presence now reigns in Yangon and security forces succeeded in preventing any big rallies on Saturday.
Two gatherings of a few hundred protesters each emerged at locations in the city, but security forces quickly swooped with batons and beat them away.
Demonstrations led by monks are being tolerated elsewhere, including the religious capital of Mandalay, but supporters who attach themselves are being generally dispersed.
However in the central city of Pakokku, witnesses said monks led thousands of protesters in a peaceful two-hour march Saturday that appeared to have been mounted with the approval of local authorities.
Dissidents said Sunday they were looking for alternative venues to gather, away from the thousands of security forces massed in Yangon.
"We plan to go ahead with our movement," a source involved in the protests told AFP.
"And we are going to choose a different venue where there are lots of escape routes so that as soon as the government cracks down on us we can disappear.
"Even if the authorities chase us we will be able to clear out and then try
to mass again."
A few supermarkets and other shops opened their doors in downtown Yangon to enable people to buy essential goods.
A handful of people attending to their businesses or dashing to work could be seen on the streets, but most were deterred by the indiscriminate onslaught that has caught many ordinary people unprepared.
People living near the rallies have been beaten and harassed as soldiers chasing demonstrators raced through their neighbourhoods, and they have been told not to venture outside or even look out of their windows.
Monks are keeping a low profile after a brutal campaign of arrests, beatings and monastery raids.
Troops have blockaded many big monasteries, including in Mandalay, and monks are only allowed to move around in small groups.
Amid global condemnation of the crackdown, Myanmar's closest ally China on Saturday made its most strident call yet for restraint.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's main Internet connection has been cut since Friday, drastically reducing the flow of video, photos and first-hand reports of the violence which have helped inform the world of the crisis. - AFP/ir
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