UN envoy meets Myanmar junta chief

Meanwhile, the military junta announced a two-hour reduction on Tuesday in an overnight curfew imposed on its main city last week as it countered the biggest anti-government protests in 20 years.

Than Shwe has so far appeared deaf to international calls for restraint, posting troops and police across Yangon and dispatching pro-junta gangs to raid homes in search of monks and dissidents on the run.

“They are going from apartment to apartment, shaking things inside, threatening the people. You have a climate of terror all over the city,” a Bangkok-based Myanmar expert with many friends in Yangon said. “People are terrified. This government keeps power through fear and intimidation and they are trying to intimidate people to stay off the streets.”

Gambari flew to Naypyidaw, new jungle capital of the country formerly known as Burma, to convey international outrage at last week’s crushing of monk-led protests against decades of military rule and deepening poverty. Apart from meeting three minister-generals and Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest, it was not clear how Gambari had spent his three days in Myanmar. Even UN officials were unable to explain his itinerary.

The UN Security Council, which endorsed the former Nigerian foreign minister’s emergency visit, is hoping the mission will kick start some sort of dialogue between the junta — the latest face of 45 years of military rule — and Suu Kyi, the 62-year-old Nobel peace laureate..

Gambari was expected to have a second meeting with Suu Kyi, French UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said, kindling hopes of some sort of “shuttle diplomacy”.