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YANGON : The top US diplomat in Myanmar headed to talks with its ruling generals Friday as the government made a heavily qualified offer to meet democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi after its crackdown on protests.
Shari Villarosa, the charge d'affaires at the US embassy here, was invited by the government to its remote capital Naypyidaw but had received no word on who she would be meeting, US officials said.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said she would pass on a "very clear message" to the generals to start "meaningful" dialogue with opposition groups.
The unexpected, rare invitation was announced hours after state television said Myanmar leader Senior General Than Shwe had offered to meet personally with Aung San Suu Kyi.
He told UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari earlier this week that he would meet with the detained Nobel Peace Prize winner - but only if she drops her stance of "confrontation" and ends support for sanctions on the country.
Observers said the conditions attached to the offer meant there was only a remote possibility that talks would actually take place.
"It's not enough to play diplomatic games," said Dave Mathieson, a Myanmar consultant for Human Rights Watch.
"They have to do something substantial to prove that they're serious about it. The first step would be to let her out of house arrest straight away."
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose opposition National League for Democracy won 1990 elections by a landslide but was never allowed to rule, has spent most of the last 18 years confined to her lakeside home in the main city Yangon.
Despite the regime's efforts to silence her, she continues to symbolise the nation's democratic aspirations for many in Myanmar and abroad.
Last week, despite worldwide calls for restraint, the government came down hard on escalating protests led by the country's revered Buddhist monks which drew up to 100,000 people onto the streets of Yangon.
They had begun with small-scale protests after a massive mid-August hike in fuel prices, but swelled into the biggest threat to the hardline regime since student-led demonstrations in 1988.
At least 13 people were killed in the crackdown, and state media announced late Thursday that more than 2,000 had been arrested, of whom nearly 700 had already been released.
The number includes protesters and supporters, but also simple bystanders who have all been accused of violating a ban on gatherings of more than five people.
Although the security presence on the streets has eased, soldiers continue to enforce a curfew and raid activists' home overnight, residents say.
Now most Yangon monasteries seem empty, leaving neighbours to wonder if the monks have been arrested, injured or worse.
Amid a flurry of international diplomacy, Gambari was due to brief the UN Security Council later Friday on his four-day mission here during which he met Than Shwe and twice with Aung San Suu Kyi.
Speaking Thursday, China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, whose country along with India has close ties to Myanmar, said Beijing still regarded the crisis there as an internal matter.
He said Beijing rejected the idea of punitive measures against the regime. "No internationally-imposed solution can help the situation," Wang added.
India, which has been under fire for its low-key reaction, called for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, saying she can "contribute to the emergence of Myanmar as a democratic country".
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also said he would soon travel to the Southeast Asia region to press for change, while Brazil unveiled plans to send a team of observers.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, called on Myanmar to allow rights monitors to enter, pointing to "pretty alarming" glimpses of abuses leaking out.
She told Canada's public broadcaster CBC that she was concerned about the lack of reliable and credible international monitoring of the situation on the ground. - AFP/ch
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