U.N. Envoy Arrives In Burma for Talks With Ruling Junta

Source: Washington Post Foreign Service

Without Sequestered Monks, Protest Wilts

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, September 30, 2007; Page A20

BANGKOK, Sept. 29 -- A U.N. special envoy flew to Burma for discussions with the country's entrenched military government Saturday, seeking to resolve a bloody political uprising that has generated worldwide demands for the generals to halt their repression and make way for democratic reforms.

The protests that for nearly two weeks have rocked Burma's two main cities, Rangoon and Mandalay, were reduced to knots of youths shouting insults at thousands of armed police officers and soldiers who have been deployed on the streets to smother the campaign, according to Internet reports from Burmese activists and exile groups in neighboring Thailand.

The Buddhist monks who had been leading the protesters -- and inspiring them with their revered status in Burmese society -- were blocked inside monasteries for a second day, surrounded by army troops and frightened by a wave of arrests, the reports said.

The U.N. envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, landed in Rangoon and headed for Naypyidaw, the isolated official capital 250 miles to the north that was chosen two years ago as headquarters for the ruling State Peace and Development Council headed by Senior Gen. Than Shwe, according to news agencies. The Singaporean foreign minister, George Yeo, said in New York that Gambari's mission was the best hope for a peaceful end to the crisis and movement toward a political transformation after nearly half a century of military dictatorship.


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/09/29/ST2007092900838.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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as long as they get their oil pipelines secure,they don't care how the locals run internal affairs.

Well, it's good to know she's OK. It sounds as if they're really determined to stop any news getting out about what happens now, though, which doesn't bode well.

Gambari flew out of Singapore to Myanmar for what he hoped would be 'a very fruitful visit'
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DA227182-5316-4CFE-83A8-99855A6E0B0E.htm