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Junta shuts down internet
02/11/2007 17:24 - (SA)
Yangon - Myanmar's junta cut internet connections and axed the senior United Nations official here on Friday, clouding the atmosphere before a visit by the world body's envoy over last month's violent crackdown.
A day before Ibrahim Gambari's arrival, Myanmar's ruling generals announced on Friday that they would not renew the mandate of the UN's top man in Yangon, a UN spokesperson said.
Charles Petrie, the world body's country chief, was summoned to the new capital Naypyidaw for a meeting with junta officials, said Aye Win, a UN information officer in Yangon.
"I can confirm that the government has expressed its intention not to continue his assignment," Aye Win told AFP.
The government's decision will likely force Petrie, who arrived in Myanmar in 2003, to leave the country.
The junta is reportedly angry over a statement the UN made last month denouncing a "deteriorating humanitarian situation" in Myanmar.
In the aftermath of the junta's bloody suppression of demonstrations in late September, Petrie also made several public remarks that were critical of Myanmar's leaders.
The abrupt move will likely complicate Gambari's already difficult mission and adds to the mixed signals put out by the junta over recent days.
Muted optimism
Optimism over the release of more people arrested during September's wave of protests has been somewhat muted by a cut in internet access on Friday in an apparent bid to limit the flow of information ahead of Gambari's visit.
Another 46 people, mostly from democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, were released late on Thursday, party spokesperson Nyan Win said, bringing the total number of people freed during the past week to 165.
But the continuing detention of hundreds of others is likely to be high on Gambari's agenda as he meets with the junta again on his second visit since the unrest broke out.
Gambari, who is expected to travel to Naypyidaw on Sunday, has been tasked with implementing a genuine dialogue between the military regime and the opposition, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
Gambari last visited Myanmar from September 29 to October 2, just days after security forces confronted protesters with batons, tear gas and bullets in the streets of the commercial capital Yangon.
His new mission "will have to bring substantive results," UN chief Ban Ki-moon said earlier this week, adding that Gambari would press for "more democratic measures by the government."
But some observers are less sure that Gambari's six-day visit will produce real progress, and see his invitation merely as a way for the junta, which has been in power since 1962, to ease international pressure on itself.
"It is highly likely that the junta is just buying some time," Shigeru Tsumori, a former Japanese ambassador to Myanmar, told AFP by phone from Tokyo on Friday.
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