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Search on for new Myanmar negotiator - diplomats

By David Brunnstrom

  
BANGKOK, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A search is on to find a replacement for a U.N.
special envoy to Myanmar who has been unable to bring about any democratic
change there despite four visits to the country, diplomats said on Friday. 

A three-day mission to Yangon this week by Japan's former Prime Minister
Ryutaro Hashimoto was connected to finding the replacement for Peruvian
Alvaro de Soto, said one diplomat in the Myanmar capital who did not want to
be identified. 

In late October, shortly after his last visit to Myanmar, De Soto was named
the U.N. special representative to Cyprus and promoted to under
secretary-general. But no announcement has been made about the future of his
Myanmar mission. 

Diplomats said De Soto had clearly become frustrated by a lack of progress
in his efforts to encourage Myanmar to democratise, but the process he had
started would continue. 

``I think he's had enough of that, but it's going to carry on,'' said a
Bangkok-based diplomat. 

``He has another job,'' said the envoy in Yangon. ``It's likely there should
be somebody else coming in the next round. There have been direct contacts
to the Japanese and other countries in Asia to look for an appropriate
person.'' 

De Soto's mission to Myanmar as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special
envoy ran into difficulties from the start. 

After his first visit to Yangon in October last year the generals took
umbrage when media reports appeared saying the United Nations and the World
Bank were willing to offer Myanmar up to $1 billion if they were to enter a
dialogue with the pro-democracy opposition led by Nobel laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi. 

MISSION NOT APPRECIATED 

``The first De Soto mission was not appreciated by this government at all,''
said the diplomat in Yangon. ``The fact it was quoted that $1 billion
dollars would be given to the government was a face-losing approach for them. 

``They were really bothered and said 'nobody can buy us'.'' 

A measure of the failure of De Soto's mission came when Suu Kyi's opposition
announced last month the authorities had arrested the leaders of two ethnic
minority parties who took part in talks with him during his October visit. 

The Yangon-based diplomat said Hashimoto would have sounded out military
leaders in Yangon on finding a replacement. 

``I'm sure,'' he said. ``If you had a difficult negotiation situation and if
one party is not happy about the negotiator and the negotiator is in a
difficult position, any change in the negotiator is a step forward.'' 

Japanese diplomats say the visit of Hashimoto, Japanese Prime Minister Keizo
Obuchi's foreign policy adviser, has been to discuss Japan's offer of aid if
there is democratic progress. 

Japan suspended aid in 1988, when the military killed thousands to crush a
pro-democracy uprising. It resumed some humanitarian help when Suu Kyi was
freed from six-years house arrest in 1995. 

A Japanese diplomat in Bangkok said full resumption of aid would require
visible progress towards democracy. 

Myanmar has not commented on a World Bank report last month that said Yangon
needed major political and human rights reforms to achieve prosperity on a
par with neighbouring countries. 

However, it has not shut the door, saying World Bank officials would be
invited for further consultations. 

03:35 12-03-99