Myanmar junta greets UN envoy with rallies

Myanmar’s military junta greeted visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari with state-sponsored rallies calling for “respect” from the United Nations...

Myanmar’s military junta greeted visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari with state-sponsored rallies calling for “respect” from the United Nations as he tried to coax the generals into reforms, official media reported on Sunday.

“We respect the UN, we respect Gambari, respect Myanmar,” state television and newspapers quoted a slogan at one rally, one of many which people say they are forced to attend, held in the Mandalay area.

Gambari returned to army-ruled Myanmar on Saturday, a row over the junta’s move to kick out the UN’s top resident diplomat overshadowing his mission to promote “dialogue and national reconciliation”.

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He emphasised immediately UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s backing of country chief Charles Petrie, told by the regime he was no longer welcome after highlighting a deepening economic crisis that fuelled mass protests crushed by the army.

“Gambari conveyed the Secretary-General’s support for the Country Team and the Resident Coordinator and the important work they continue to do to improve the socioeconomic and humanitarian situation,” the UN office in Yangon said in a statement.

But government mouthpieces attacked the Petrie statement in Sunday editorials as “groundless”.

“The statement of the UN Country Team in Myanmar absolutely ignores Myanmar’s prevailing conditions, and it is, indeed, merely a groundless one,” English-language daily the New Light of Myanmar said.

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It was not clear how long Gambari, who flew to the jungle capital Naypyidaw shortly after landing in Yangon on Saturday, would stay in Myanmar and who he would be allowed to meet by the military, which has ruled the country since 1962.