Reuters-UN official leaves Myanmar

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Subject: Reuters-UN official leaves Myanmar after dialogue mission 

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.