UN envoy looking forward to "fruitful visit" in Myanmar
Posted: 29 September 2007 1352 hrs

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SINGAPORE: United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari said on Saturday he was looking forward to "a very fruitful visit" to Myanmar.

Gambari spoke briefly with reporters as he left his hotel before heading to the airport to catch his flight to Myanmar's main city of Yangon.

He said he was going "to deliver a message from the secretary-general to the leadership, a message that is very much by the Security Council and ASEAN, and I look forward to a very fruitful visit so that I can report progress on all fronts".

Gambari spent Friday night in the city-state, hotel sources said, having stopped over and met with Singapore officials after being dispatched to Myanmar by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday, when Myanmar's junta began a crackdown on anti-government protesters.

The Myanmar junta's crackdown on the biggest wave of public dissent in nearly 20 years has left at least 13 people dead, hundreds more jailed and sparked international outrage.

Asked if he expected to meet detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Gambari said: "I expect to meet all the people that I need to meet."

Gambari's itinerary has not been released, but on previous visits he has met with junta leader Senior General Than Shwe. He has also once met with Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for most of the past 18 years.

"We have called on the Burmese to allow him to be able to meet with anyone he wants to meet – the military leaders, the religious leaders and Aung San Suu Kyi," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Friday.

Singapore is the current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Myanmar.

In unusually sharp language ASEAN foreign ministers, who met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, on Thursday expressed their "revulsion" at the crackdown.


- AFP/so