UN official leaves Myanmar ??????

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

What happened to the World Bank and IMF reps, nothing heard of them
since they entered Burma? last week.
> 
> UN official leaves Myanmar after dialogue mission
> 09:55 a.m. Oct 18, 1999 Eastern
> YANGON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official left Myanmar on Monday
> after a delicate five day mission aimed at promoting dialogue between
> Yangon's ruling military and the beleaguered opposition led by Nobel
> laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
> 
> Assistant U.N. secretary-general for political affairs Alvaro de Soto held
> talks with top officials from the governing State Peace and Development
> Council (SPDC), Suu Kyi and other political parties that represent ethnic
> minorities, during the trip.
> 
> De Soto, who travelled as an emissary of U.S. Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
> went to Myanmar following a request to Annan from the U.N. General Assembly
> to try to end Myanmar's isolation by persuading the government to negotiate
> with the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Suu Kyi.
> 
> ``He leaves Yangon...in order to report to the Secretary-General. The
> Secretary-General will shortly submit a report to the U.N. General Assembly
> on his mandate of good offices concerning Myanmar,'' a U.N. statement issued
> in Yangon said.
> 
> The U.N. assembly, as well as Western countries led by the United States and
> the European Union, has condemned Myanmar for severe human rights violations
> ranging from forced labor to torture of prisoners, mainly students,
> professionals and academics.
> 
> De Soto last travelled to Myanmar a year ago at which time he raised the
> possibility of World Bank development aid if the government initiated a
> dialogue with the opposition.
> 
> So far the military junta has refused to negotiate with Suu Kyi's party
> unless she disbands a committee designed to represent parliament, a
> challenge to its rule.
> 
> The NLD won the country's last election in 1990 but the military ignored the
> results and has since tried to silence the party through arrests and
> intimidation.
> 
> De Soto met Suu Kyi and top NLD officials twice during his trip, but she and
> the party have not commented on the meetings.
> 
> He also met Foreign Minister Win Aung. Official media has made scant mention
> of the trip, and only reported De Soto's meeting with Minister in the Office
> of the SPDC, Brigadier General David Abel, and said discussion centred on
> Myanmar's social and economic progress and the provision of UNDP assistance.
> 
> Khun Tun Oo, chairman of ethnic minority party the Shan Nationalities League
> for Democracy, told reporters that in a meeting with De Soto his group had
> provided information about the political situation in the country.
> 
> ``With regards to breaking the current political deadlock, we told him that
> the ball is in the court of the SPDC government,'' Khun Tun Oo said.