Saturday, January 16, 2010

Aung San Suu Kyi meets junta’s liaison minister

 
Friday, 15 January 2010 20:51 Mizzima News

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday, for the first time in 2010, met with government liaison minister Aung Kyi at her house, according to party leaders.

Ohn Kyaing, a member of the National League for Democracy’s Central Executive Committee (CEC), said, “I heard that Daw Suu met with U Aung Kyi but I do not have any detailed information.”

Similarly, Khin Maung Swe, a NLD spokesperson, told Mizzima on Friday that he had also heard of the meeting through sources but did not have detailed information of what the two discussed.

“We heard that the meeting was for about 25 minutes at her home,” Khin Maung Swe added.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi last met with Aung Kyi in December.

Than Shwe appointed the liaison minister as an interlocutor between himself and Aung San Suu Kyi in 2007, following the visit of then United Nations Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, on the heels of September’s Saffron Revolution.

Friday’s meeting came a day after the NLD announced its decision to expand its CEC from 11 members to 20, a move seen by some observers as a kind of preparation for a political tug-of-war leading up to and following this year’s scheduled general election.

“If the meeting today is correct, I think it is a good step for the New Year. We are hoping that it will be a positive meeting,” Ohn Kyaing iterated, adding that they welcome such meetings and hope the process will continue.

Burma’s present military rulers, in power for the past two decades, have announced they are set to hold a general election in 2010, but have yet to specify any dates.

The NLD, meanwhile, say they will participate in the election only if the junta agrees to first amend the 2008 constitution, release all political prisoners and permit international monitoring of the polls.