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UN envoy meets Aung San Suu Kyi, junta leader

A UN envoy met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for a second time, hours after an audience with Myanmar's military leader yesterday, pressing ahead his quest to end the junta's crackdown on democracy advocates.

Ibrahim Gambari, the UN's special envoy, met with Senior General Than Shwe in the junta's remote new capital, Naypyitaw, a UN statement said. It said he then flew to Yangon and talked to Aung San Suu Kyi, who has come to symbolize the yearning for democracy in Myanmar.

The meeting with Than Shwe was expected but the one with Aung San Suu Kyi came as a surprise, raising hopes that Gambari's shuttle diplomacy was making some progress.

"This is a very positive sign. We have to hope that the search for a national reconciliation process has started," an Asian diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.

The UN has said that Gambari's mission is to persuade the generals -- who have provoked worldwide revulsion with last month's crackdown -- to take the people's demand for democracy seriously.

Dissident groups say up to 200 protesters were slain and 6,000 detained in the junta's crackdown, compared to the regime's report of 10 deaths.

The UN statement said Gambari's meeting with Than Shwe and his deputies "to discuss the current situation in Myanmar" lasted more than an hour. It said Gambari also met Aung San Suu Kyi for the second time during his four-day mission -- the first one was on Sunday -- but gave no other details.

Gambari "has now left Myanmar and will return to New York to report to [UN] Secretary-General [Ban Ki-moon] on the outcome of his mission," the statement said.

Foreign governments have been urging the junta to free the detainees, who include thousands of Buddhist monks who led last month's protests. In addition, freeing Aung San Suu Kyi from her long years of house arrest has been one of the main goals of all UN envoys and Myanmar's international critics.

The meeting between Gambari and Than Shwe also included No. 2 junta leader Deputy Senior General Maung Aye, as well as two other top generals in the ruling coterie.

While the envoy tried to broker peace, the junta's security forces reduced their presence in Yangon, which remained quiet after troops and police brutally quelled mass protests last week.

The 9pm-to-5am curfew was scaled back to 10pm to 4am.

Kept off the streets, many residents launched a new form of protest on Monday evening by switching off their lights and turning off television sets from 8pm to 8:15pm during the nightly government newscast.

It was unclear how many homes heeded calls for what activists are calling a "silent protest" against the junta.
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