Mr Ban arriving at a hotel in Yangon, Myanmar. -- PHOTO: AP
NAYPYIDAW (Myanmar) - UN SECRETARY-GENERAL Ban Ki Moon said on Saturday his request to meet detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been denied by the ruling junta's top general Than Shwe.
THE secretary-general, who is one of the few top world figures the Myanmar supremo is willing to meet with, also presented Than Shwe with a number of proposals to help the development of democracy.
He said those proposals included the release of the more than 2,000 political prisoners ahead of next year's election, opening of real dialogue between the government and opposition, and creating conditions conducive to free and fair elections.
'I'm deeply disappointed,' Mr Ban told reporters after his 30-minute meeting with the junta supremo. 'I'm very sorry to report to you that this is not possible.'
Mr Ban, on a two-day visit to the former Burma, said Than Shwe's reason for the denial was because Ms Suu Kyi was on trial and he did not want to interfere with the judicial process.
Ms Suu Kyi, who has spearheaded the campaign for democracy for two decades in the former Burma, is currently on trial for breaching a security law, which critics say is an attempt by the generals to keep her out of multi-party elections to be held next year.
After his earlier meeting on Friday with Mr Than Shwe in the country's remote new capital, Naypyidaw, Mr Ban told reporters that the senior general had reacted coolly to his request to see Ms Suu Kyi.
'He told me that she is on trial. I told him that I wanted to meet her in person,' he said. UN officials had no comment on the delay of Ms Suu Kyi's trial, which was adjourned on Friday until July 10 because of a clerical error by the court, according to her lawyer. -- REUTERS
