Yangon: A UN envoy met ministers from
Myanmar`s military junta on Friday to press for a meeting with
detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and discuss human
rights ahead of elections this year.
The talks came as the opposition said a senior
Buddhist monk had been jailed for seven years, becoming the
sixth dissident to be jailed in a week as the regime steps up
a crackdown on dissent.
On the fifth and final day of his trip to Myanmar,
Tomas Ojea Quintana flew to the remote capital Naypyidaw for
talks but was not meeting the regime`s reclusive supremo,
Senior General Than Shwe, officials said.
Quintana met Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Home
Affairs minister Maung Oo, as well as the chief justice,
attorney general and police chief, officials said.
"He will not see our senior general," a Myanmar
official said on condition of anonymity. Details of Friday`s
talks were not immediately available.
Members of Suu Kyi`s National League for Democracy
said Quintana had told them at a meeting late Thursday that he
had asked to meet Suu Kyi but had received no answer yet from
the junta.
Quintana has not spoken publicly since arriving in
Myanmar but said in a statement a week ago that "I hope that
my request to the government to meet with... Aung San Suu Kyi
will be granted this time."
PTI
