Myanmar's Suu Kyi Meets Party Leaders

Detained Myanmar opposition head Aung San Suu Kyi is "very optimistic" about the U.N.-promoted process for reconciliation between the military government and pro-democracy forces, top members of her party said Friday.

Three executive members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and a party spokesman were allowed to meet Suu Kyi on Friday for the first time in more than three years.

Their meeting was permitted by the government after U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Thursday completed a six-day visit to Myanmar to promote a dialogue between the ruling junta and Suu Kyi.

Party spokesman Nyan Win, speaking after he and his colleagues met for about an hour with Suu Kyi, said she believes the military authorities now have the will to achieve national reconciliation.

He said she told them that the government's crackdown on September's mass pro-democracy demonstrations was "devastating for the NLD, the government and the people."

"She said a healing process such as the release of political prisoners is essential," according to Nyan Win.

Authorities in Myanmar say the junta's Sept. 26-27 crackdown on pro-democracy protests killed 10 people, though diplomats and dissidents say the death toll was much higher. Thousands were arrested, with the events triggering intense global condemnation.

Suu Kyi has been in government detention for 12 of the past 18 years, and continuously since May 2003.

Asked to describe Suu Kyi's condition after being under house arrest continuously for more than four years, Nyan Win said she looks "fit, well and energetic like before. She is full of ideas."

Suu Kyi also held talks with Aung Kyi, who was appointed the junta's "minister for relations" with the former Nobel Peace Prize winner last month amid the severe worldwide criticism of the junta.

The government unexpectedly announced Thursday that Suu Kyi would be allowed to meet with her party's top officials.

Its statement, broadcast on state radio and television, came just hours after the U.N.'s Gambari ended his second mission to broker negotiations between the military regime and pro-democracy leaders.

Gambari met with Suu Kyi for an hour Thursday and released a statement on her behalf after leaving the country.

"In the interest of the nation, I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success," Suu Kyi said in her statement, which Gambari read aloud Thursday evening in Singapore.

Her message also slightly prodded the junta, officially known as the State Peace and Development Council, to move more quickly in dealing with her.

While acknowledging that talks with Aung Kyi are constructive, she said she expects "this phase of preliminary consultations will conclude soon so that a meaningful and time-bound dialogue with the SPDC leadership can start as early as possible."

Suu Kyi's statement was apparently her first since her latest detention began in 2003.

Myanmar experts around the world reacted cautiously to the seeming breakthrough.

"My reaction is extreme skepticism that this will lead to real dialogue between her and the (junta), or genuine political change," said Donald M. Seekins, a Myanmar expert at Meio University in Japan. "The (government) likes to move Suu Kyi and the NLD around like pieces on a chessboard, to satisfy the international community."

Suu Kyi's party won a 1990 general election, but the military refused to cede power, saying a new constitution had to be adopted first. It is still in the process of writing one.

In the streets of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, residents said they were hopeful that Suu Kyi's meeting would lay the groundwork for reconciliation. "Conditions have been created to move forward," said Ohn Myint, a 67-year-old lawyer."