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Yangon approves UN envoy's
return
By Larry Jagan
BANGKOK
- United Nations envoy Razali Ismail's return to Yangon
in June after an absence of more than six months will
signal yet another opportunity to see how much of a push
he can give to the stalled dialogue between the generals
and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Mr
Razali will be visiting Burma for four days from the 6th
June," government spokesman Colonel Hla Min said. Yangon
gave permission this week for Razali to visit.
Razali has been trying for months to return to
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, to help restart the
process, but the generals have rebuffed his repeated
attempts to visit the country over the past three
months. The authorities continually found excuses - the
country's banking crisis, the visit by the UN rapporteur
on human rights Paulo Pinheiro or trips abroad by key
government ministers - to delay his visit.
In
the past few weeks, the UN envoy has begun to express
his frustration and annoyance publicly. "I am perplexed
and disappointed," he said recently when he was in
Bangkok to see Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart
Sathirathai. "I thought I was a good friend to all
sides, so can't understand why I'm unable to visit," he
said.
The UN envoy was largely responsible for
brokering secret talks between the two sides more than
two years ago, while the opposition leader was under
house arrest.
He also persuaded the Myanmese
generals to free Suu Kyi a year ago. But since then,
there has been little contact between the military
government and the opposition leader.
"There's
nothing happening on the political front," said an Asian
diplomat in Yangon. "The whole national reconciliation
process has stalled and needs Mr Razali to return to
give it new momentum."
Since Razali started his
diplomatic mission more than three years ago, he has
visited Yangon every three months or so. "It is crucial
that I see all parties involved in the dialogue process
as regularly as possible," Razali emphasized recently.
It will now be more than six months since his
last visit - the longest interval ever between trips.
Diplomats in Yangon believe the military regime's
reluctance to allow the UN envoy to return to Myanmar is
a clear sign that the dialogue process is in real
trouble. So Razali will be returning to Myanmar at a
very crucial time.
There has been no real
contact between the two sides for more than six months.
In recent weeks there had been fears that the dialogue
process was degenerating into a war of words between the
two sides, fought through press conferences and press
releases.
Four weeks ago, Suu Kyi went on the
offensive and for the first time since her release a
year ago publicly accused the military government of not
being sincere about their promises to introduce
democratic reform. "I have come to the conclusion that
the SPDC [State Peace and Development Council, as the
military government is called] is not interested in
national reconciliation," she told reporters in Yangon.
Since then there have been signs that the
military government was anxious to repair its relations
with the opposition leader. These include the release of
more than 20 political prisoners more than a week ago.
Diplomats in Yangon also expected a face-to-face
meeting to take place between Suu Kyi and senior
representatives of the military government, but this
does not appear to have happened.
It is unlikely
to take place now, as the opposition leader is touring
Kachin state in the north of the country and is not due
back until a few days before Razali is scheduled to
arrive in Yangon.
But even if the regime seems
to have mellowed and agreed to allow Razali to return to
Yangon to talk to both sides, as yet there has been no
sign that Myanmar's top generals are prepared to start
the serious political talks they promised after the
release of the opposition leader from house arrest.
According to UN officials, Razali hopes to able
to convince them to do just that on this trip. But
Razali will have his work cut out for him. "Ambassador
Razali is likely to be exploring ways in which the two
sides can actively cooperate with each other as a
preliminary stage before substantive political
negotiations," said a UN official.
The envoy is
anxious to find ways of moving the process on from the
pure confidence-building stage to active cooperation
between them, which could lead to substantive talks.
Razali is likely to try to resurrect some of the
recommendations he has made to both sides in the past.
"He's looking for a project or two on which both sides
can work together on," UN officials in New York said.
Razali is believed to feel there is scope now to
pursue this as the humanitarian crisis is rapidly
worsening and both sides realize Myanmar's desperate
need for humanitarian and development assistance.
Both the opposition leader and the senior
military officials say the two sides should cooperate on
humanitarian and development issues such as AIDS, health
and education. "They [the generals] have shown that they
are not willing to cooperate with us in matters of
humanitarian aid," Suu Kyi told a news conference in
Yangon last month.
"The government actively
welcomes meaningful and constructive help in all areas
of national development - particularly in education,
health care and economic development," said Colonel Hla
Min in a recent statement to the international press.
Razali remains convinced that he can help all
sides in their reconciliation process - the government,
the opposition and the ethnic minorities.
Diplomats feel that the generals and Aung San
Suu Kyi are unable to talk to each other without some
form of international mediation, and that otherwise
Myanmar's political deadlock will never be
resolved.
UN officials insist the organization
has a very important role to play in all conflict
situations - not just in Myanmar - that goes beyond
facilitation. In recent months the international
community has also begun to suggest that Razali's role
should be boosted.
Now Razali will have another
opportunity to see if he can help push the dialogue
process forward. Interestingly, the Myanmese authorities
agreed to this last trip just as the United States and
the European Union are in the process of strengthening
economic sanctions against Yangon because of the lack of
progress in the dialogue process (see Another blow for Yangon, April 18).
(Inter Press Service)
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