Top UN envoy in Myanmar to meet Aung San Suu Kyi
Ahead of the meeting set for around 4:00 P.M. here (0930 GMT), Gambari will fly to Myanmar's new administrative capital, Nay Pyi Taw, some 350 kilometers (215 miles) north of Yangon, to see junta leader Than Shwe, Information Ministry sources said.
The Nigerian diplomat, an emissary of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, became the only foreigner allowed to see Aung San Suu Kyi, 61, in more than two years when he visited the isolated Southeast Asian nation in May.
Gambari's four-day trip this week comes at a critical time for the junta, as the UN Security Council discussed the situation in Myanmar in September despite strong opposition from China, an ally of the regime.
The United States, a vocal critic of Myanmar, is pressing for a Security Council resolution on its human rights abuses and lack of reforms.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, who lobbied hard to put Myanmar on the council's agenda in September, said the resolution would likely come after Gambari's visit.
On the eve of Gambari's mission, Annan urged the junta to show "tangible steps forward" on human rights, democratic reform and national reconciliation.
Annan has repeatedly called for the release of the Nobel peace laureate, who has been under house arrest in Yangon for most of the past 17 years.
Apart from her live-in maid, the leader of Myanmar's opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD) is allowed no contact with the outside world, except for once-a-month visits from her doctor, Tin Myo Win.
When the junta allowed Gambari to see Aung San Suu Kyi in May, hopes ran high that the military government might finally set her free.
But just a week after the surprise meeting, the junta extended her house arrest for another year.
Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Myanmar, a regional democracy lobby, said Myanmar was again allowing Gambari to see Aung San Suu Kyi in a bid to prevent the UN Security Council from discussing the nation.
"The junta is very concerned that Burma is on the agenda of the UN Security Council. They don't like it and they feel pressured," said Stothard, referring to the old name of Myanmar.
"By inviting Mr Gambari, the junta is hoping that the UN Security Council will delay its discussion on Burma. I hope Mr Gambari goes back to New York, understanding that the junta was wasting his time," she said.
On Friday, Gambari, the undersecretary general for political affairs, met with delegates attending talks aimed at drafting Myanmar's constitution at the secluded Nyaunghnapin military compound outside Yangon.
Drafting the constitution is supposed to be the first of seven steps on a "road map" to democracy, but some 1,000 delegates were handpicked by the junta and the NLD has boycotted the talks to demand the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as the country's estimated 1,100 political prisoners.
The absence of the NLD in the closed-door constitutional talks, which have been held sporadically for more than a decade, has prompted the United States, the UN and the European Union to dismiss the proceedings as a sham.
During Friday's talks with delegates, Gambari stressed the need "for an all-inclusive and transparent political process" in Myanmar, according to a UN statement.
Gambari is also expected to see seven senior members of the NLD on Saturday, Information Ministry sources said.
The NLD won 1990 elections in a landslide victory, but the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, refused to recognize the result.
Gambari will leave Myanmar early Sunday and is scheduled to hold talks with Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram in Bangkok on Monday.