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YANGON : The UN special envoy to Myanmar arrived in the military-ruled nation Friday to pave the way for a visit by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon focused on the trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Troubleshooter Ibrahim Gambari was set to meet key figures from the ruling military during his two-day trip but there were no immediate plans to see Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi or members of her party, Myanmar officials said.
The Nigerian diplomat touched down in the main city Yangon on a commercial flight and later made the four-hour drive to the military's administrative capital Naypyidaw for talks with the military regime, officials said.
He was expected to meet with Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win late Friday and would return to Yangon on Saturday, according to official sources.
Gambari is to brief UN chief Ban on the outcome of his mission and Ban will then decide whether to go ahead with plans to go to Myanmar early next month, according to UN sources in New York.
The UN boss and Gambari have been trying to persuade Myanmar's ruling generals to free all political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and to steer their country on the path to democracy and national reconciliation.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, is being held in jail on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside house earlier this year. She risks up to five years in prison if convicted.
She has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the ruling generals refused to recognise the landslide victory of her National League for Democracy party (NLD) in 1990 elections.
Critics accuse the military of trying to keep her locked up ahead of elections promised in 2010.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party spokesman and lawyer Nyan Win said she and Yettaw appeared in court at Insein prison for a procedural hearing Friday, adding he did not yet know if Gambari would meet with the detained democracy icon.
The trial was adjourned for one week until July 3.
"Like his previous visit (in February) he might meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi but we haven't got any information yet," Nyan Win told AFP.
Gambari was named the top UN envoy for Myanmar in 2006 but his previous visits have produced few results. Aung San Suu Kyi refused to meet him in August 2008, apparently after he failed to secure reform pledges from the regime.
The charges against Aung San Suu Kyi come amid a wide-ranging crackdown on the opposition that has been carried out since the ruling generals crushed protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007.
The military appeared to toughen its stance on the eve of Gambari's visit when the national police chief held a press conference to show alleged links between Yettaw and exiled dissident groups based in Thailand.
Yettaw, a devout Mormon and US military veteran, has told the trial that he swam to Aung San Suu Kyi's home because he was on a mission from God to warn her about a "vision" that she would be assassinated.
The case has drawn widespread international condemnation, with US President Barack Obama describing it as a "show trial" and some of Myanmar's neighbours breaking their usual silence on the issue.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said in Beijing Friday following meetings with Chinese leaders that they were "concerned" about the trial of the opposition leader.
"We are concerned because the events have meant that there are questions about how things are going to move forward (in Myanmar)," he said.
But he said that China and Thailand "do not believe in sanctions," adding that "isolating or alienating" the Myanmar government would not help reform.
The United States and Europe have both imposed sanctions against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.
- AFP /ls
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