U.N. Struggles To Broker Talks In Myanmar

A U.N. envoy hoping to broker talks on political reform in Myanmar conferred with two Cabinet ministers Sunday but was unlikely to meet the junta's top leader because of its rift with the United Nations, diplomats said.

Envoy Ibrahim Gambari was on the second day of a mission to urge political reform and spur talks between the ruling generals and their pro-democracy opponents. It was his second visit since the junta violently suppressed anti-government demonstrations in September.

The envoy met with Nyan Win, the foreign minister, and Aung Kyi, the labor minister who also was appointed last month as the government liaison to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the diplomats said.

The Yangon-based diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said Gambari faces problems in trying to meet with junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe because of a rift with the U.N.

The day before his arrival in Yangon Saturday, the junta announced it planned to expel the top U.N. diplomat in the country, resident coordinator Charles Petrie.

It accused Petrie of going beyond his duties by criticizing the generals' failure to meet the economic and humanitarian needs of its people, and by saying this was the cause of September's mass pro-democracy protests.

Gambari was expected to remain in Naypyitaw, the new remote capital north of Yangon, on Monday before returning to Yangon for a possible meeting with Suu Kyi, the diplomats said.

The official media has made no mention of Gambari's visit.

On his first trip following the protests, Gambari met twice with Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been held under house arrest in Yangon for 12 of the past 18 years. And following his visit, Aung Kyi, a retired major general reputed to be more flexible than others in the ruling circle, held brief talks with the democracy leader.

The U.N.'s diplomatic initiative follows demonstrations in which the military says 10 people were killed, but diplomats and dissidents say the death toll is much higher. Thousands of people were detained.

But little of substance has changed on Myanmar's political scene since, and analysts expect that little will result from Gambari's current visit.

"It's a game. It's the only game in town, but it's a game," said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert from Georgetown University who visited the country last month and met with minister-level officials.

The United Nations has attempted to bring about reconciliation for almost two decades. The junta has from time to time made minor concessions, such as brief meetings with Suu Kyi, but continues its 45-year stranglehold on power - sometimes snubbing its nose at the international community.

Protest leaders who recently escaped to Thailand say some still look on the United Nations with hope, but others are deeply disillusioned that it has failed to be more forceful in dealing with the generals.

"The world seems to have accepted the lies of the (junta). This is a matter of life or death but so far the U.N. and the world have only come up with words," said Kar Kar Pancha, a Yangon businessman who fled to the Thai border.

Some people in Myanmar have even taken to calling Gambari "Kyauk Yu Pyan," translated as "one who takes gems and then leaves."

Because of the ineffectiveness of the U.N. envoys' dealings with the generals, unsubstantiated rumors have circulated that some have taken bribes from the junta. Gambari's predecessor, Razali Ismail, acknowledged that a Malaysian company he heads, IRIS Corp., sold high-tech passports embedded with microchips to the regime.

The U.S. and other Western countries shun the junta for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to Suu Kyi's party after it won national elections in 1990. They maintain diplomatic and economic sanctions against the regime, and block assistance from multilateral aid agencies such as the World Bank.