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UN official Ibrahim Gambari poses for a photo with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during discussions in Rangoon
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Diplomats say a senior U.N. envoy has met with Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon, where security forces have violently suppressed anti-government protests.
They say Ibrahim Gambari met Aung San Suu Kyi Sunday for a little more than an hour at a government-run guest house. The Nobel Peace laureate has been under house arrest for more than a decade and is rarely granted visitors. The two also met last year in Rangoon.
Gambari spent the night in the country's new administrative capital, Naypyidaw, where he met leaders of the military government.
The United Nations sent Gambari on an urgent mission to Burma Saturday after the military government ordered a violent crackdown on thousands of monks and other pro-democracy protesters earlier in the week.
Burma agreed to the visit after world leaders expressed outrage over the crackdown, and neighboring ally China made a rare request for Burma's leaders to practice restraint.
Burma's government says 10 people were killed in clashes with security forces Wednesday and Thursday, but witnesses say many more died.
Among the dead was Japanese photographer Kenji Nagai killed when troops broke up a protest Thursday.
Japan's deputy foreign minister, Mitoji Yabunaka, left for Burma Sunday to press for democratic reforms and to demand a formal investigation into the photographer's death.
A video of the shooting shows a soldier firing a gun directly at the photographer from about a meter away.
The demonstrations began last month after the government abruptly doubled fuel prices. The country's revered monks then took the lead in the demonstrations, turning them into a widespread protest against 45 years of oppressive military rule.
Military squads have since beaten and detained many of the monks accused of leading the protests. Others are being confined to their monasteries.
VOA News
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