U.N. Envoy Arrives In Myanmar

Ibrahim Gambari Hopes To Promote Political Solution In Wake Of Violent Military Crackdown

(AP)  U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Myanmar Saturday, looking to convince the military junta to end its brutal crackdown on demonstrators that has virtually strangled a people's movement to end 45 years of military rule.

Hope was slipping through the hands of protesters taking on the governing junta, however, as streets that saw violent government crackdowns in the previous days were mostly quiet. Troops were
stationed on nearly each corner of the two biggest cities, Yangon
and Mandalay.

Gambari arrived at the Yangon airport and was being briefed by U.N. officials. He was expected to head immediately to Naypyitaw, where the country's military leaders are based.

Western diplomats said Gambari's schedule was set by the government and likely would not include meetings with pro-democracy figures, such as Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu, who is under house arrest.

The envoy remained confident. "I expect to meet all the people that I need to meet," Gambari told reporters before boarding a plane in Singapore on his way to Myanmar.

Daily protests began last month and had grown into the stiffest challenge to Myanmar's ruling junta in decades. They were initially started by people protesting massive fuel price hikes, with crowd sizes mushrooming to tens of thousands after monks joined in.

At the United Nations, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo described Gambari's visit as critical. "If he fails then the situation can become quite dreadful," he said. He added that he believes the junta "will be restrained" during Gambari's visit.

Yeo said that if Gambari could "help them achieve national reconciliation, that would be of enormous value."

Some protesters didn't see a chance that the situation will improve.

"I don't think that we have any more hope to win," said a young woman who took part in a massive demonstration that was broken up Thursday when troops opened fire into a crowd. She was separated from her boyfriend and has not seen him since.

"The monks are the ones who give us courage," she said, referring to the clergymen who have been the backbone of rallies - both those of this week and in past years. Most are now besieged in their monasteries, penned in by locked gates and barbed wire surrounding the compounds, with soldiers standing guard outside.

The junta, which has a long history of snuffing out internal and external dissent, started cracking down Wednesday, when the first of at least 10 deaths was reported, and then let loose on Thursday, shooting protesters and clubbing them with batons.

Small groups of activists and ordinary citizens had continued to turn out since then. Housewives and shop owners were among those taunting troops and then quickly disappearing into alleyways. But the mood was somber Saturday, with few people in Yangon and Mandalay leaving their homes.

Though Myanmar is rich in natural resources, 90 percent of its 54 million people live on less than $1 a day, making it all the more difficult for some people to imagine a successful people's power revolution.

The United Nations said it was worried the current unrest could impede efforts to feed some 500,000 people. Authorities already have placed restrictions on the movement of food in some areas around Mandalay, Josette Sheeran, executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, said in a statement from New York.

[libsluvsuvs]

these anti-war liberal morons are still whinning about bush and oil..but gladly buy oil..whine about capitalism and exploitation but gladly buys GAP shirts made in India and taps on that keyboard made by some big corporation..whinning about conspiracies that they themselves promote BUT at the same time blindly passes dictatorships such as this...to save this world..we need to get rid of poser liberals

[libsluvsuvs]

and what is the UN going to do?????

complicate things with its incompetence

[wonderyman-2009]

If the Chinese can''t push for democracy in Burma, then perhaps we all should show China she is dependent on us. Stop buying goods from China for 1-2-3-4 months.
They don''t produce anything you/I can''t do without anyway.
A sharp reduction in Chinese production would probably also do their totally polluted environment good.

[getloud1]

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[edward1975-2009]

tuckerndfw: Simple mind, simple conspiracy. A little research and you would find how irrelevent that Mid Eastern oil is. But if this floats your boat, stick to it.

[j-whitman]

Nearl4511,,,, It''s not just Burma, It''s the concept of Unregulated Global Free Trade --
-- It''s used to promote repressive regeims, slave labor, sweat shops, regeim changes, etc. with absoultly no moral or ethical responsibilities on our part..
.. Our good government calls it helping undeveloped countries, it actually does more harm than good & our profit from it is obscene.
... To oppose it runs smack dab against our runnaway idea of capitalism & your called an isolationist -------- It''s one of the causes of the blow back we see today.

[nearl4511]

I realize that this is a tragedy and has been going on for decades, but........

with all the repressive military regime governments in the world, why does this story have legs. It''s as if someone told all the MSM agencies to pay attention to this. For my money genocide should rank higher than this simple repressive regime. Hey ever hear of Pakistan???

Does Burma have oil or minerals? Is is a way of making a statement ragarding CHina?

I really don''t get this. Why all the attention? It can''t be just human rights and democracy.

[j-whitman]

Other USA companies invested in Burma''s Junta''s oppressive government --
PepsiCo, Heineken, Carlsberg, Macy''s (Federated Department Stores), Levi''s, Reebok, Eddie Bauer, and others have pulled out of Burma or decided not to invest there because of consumer pressure. Others, like Apple, Motorola, and Kodak, have quit Burma in the face of selective purchasing laws that inhibit local governments from awarding contracts for goods, services, or construction to companies doing business in Burma.

[j-whitman]

Chevron (Former UNOCAL) uses UK dependent territories to channel investement to Burma via Bermuda to try to avoid being sued in US courts over human rights abuses.

[edward1975-2009]

tuckerndfw: You guys and your oil theories. Just think back, if going into Iraq was all about oil, we could''ve accomplished this yrs. ago. When we went into Kuwait to liberate them, why did we not just turn it into the American Oil Company. Think about it. Iran wanted no part of this, Iraq''s feared Republican Guard were reduced to Frenchman surrendering to anyone who would take them. Kuwait has more oil than Iraq, so why wasn''t this done. Oil had very little to do about us being in Iraq. We as a nation get most of our imported oil from Canada and Mexico. Middle East oil is a small amount of what we import.

[getloud1]

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[sharncedar]

Hey maybe if they are lucky we will help them to peace and democracy the way we did Lebanon. And maybe we''ll help themn hold elections and syupport the winner of the free and fair elections the way we are supporting Hamas in Palestine. We are the best, our government is so generous, so democracy loving. We love democracies, we love elections! We support democratic governments, with lots and lots of tender, caring, loving bombs. We bomb and kill them to make them happy, we are the good bombers, the loving killers, we only kill the people of the world for their own good. I''m sure Mynamar will welcome our "help".