Suu Kyi taken to junta meeting
Aung San Suu Kyi taken from home in Yangon to hold surprise talks with Burma junta figure
Thursday, 25, Oct 2007 01:12
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been taken from her home in Yangon to hold talks with Burma's military rulers.
The Nobel laureate, who has been under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years, was unexpectedly taken by helicopter to a state guesthouse to meet junta figure Aung Kyi.
"She is likely to meet with the labour minister at a state guesthouse," an unnamed official told reporters.
The retired general, whose antipathy towards Daw Aung Kyi is well known in the south-east Asian country, has been appointed as mediator for talks with the National League for Democracy leader following intense international pressure.
Last month at least ten people were killed in a crackdown upon mass pro-democracy protests in Burma, but outside observers, mostly banned from entering the country, say the death-toll could be much higher.
In addition, thousands of people, including the country's revered Buddhist monks, were arrested in the weeks after the demonstrations.
The surprise meeting between Daw Suu Kyi, whose party's landslide election victory was ignored by the country's military rulers in 1990, come as the UN's special envoy to Burma continues talks across the wider region.
Ibrahim Gambari, who has met with Burma's military junta and Daw Suu Kyi in the last month, is en route to Japan after holding talks in Beijing, with China the closest Burma has to an ally on the international stage.