A UN envoy to Myanmar met yesterday with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and said she was "well and in good spirits" but gave no indication if she would be released.
The envoy, Razali Ismail, was the first outsider to meet with Suu Kyi since she was put under detention by the military government at a secret location May 30, following clashes between her supporters and military backers that prompted a crackdown on her pro-democracy party.
There have been widespread concerns that she may have been injured.
"I can assure you she is well and in good spirits ... no injury on the face, arm. No injury. No scratch, nothing," Razali told reporters, after an hour-long meeting with Suu Kyi.
He declined to say where the meeting took place, but a source said on condition of anonymity it took place at the Defense Ministry guesthouse. It was not known if Suu Kyi was being held there, or whether she was driven there for the meeting.
Asked if she talked about the May 30 incident, Razali said: "She has her version and I have taken that into account. I have different reports of this and that."
He declined to say anything more, and left on a flight to Singapore en route to his native Malaysia.
The meeting with Suu Kyi was seen as a partial success for Razali's five-day mission to secure her release. But there was no indication from the junta when she would be freed, and Razali would not speculate.
Razali got permission to meet her in talks on Monday with Deputy Senior General Maung Aye, the No. 2 general in the junta.
The government says the clash that led to Suu Kyi's detention was sparked when her motorcade tried to go through thousands of pro-government protesters, and that four people were killed.
But exiled opposition figures in Thailand say pro-junta thugs started the violence, that as many as 70 people were killed and that Suu Kyi may have received head injuries in the clash.
The government has said only that she is unhurt and in custody in a "safe place."
Before meeting with Suu Kyi, Razali had said that he would tell her about the "the international worries and concern about her and how the UN [has started] to take steps for her immediate release."
He also said he would like to come back to Myanmar "as soon as possible."
"I hope and pray" that Suu Kyi will be free by the time he comes back the next time to "hasten the process of national reconciliation," he said.
The US Department of State says the May 30 clash appears to have been an ambush by junta supporters. It says the events suggest the junta has ended efforts at national reconciliation, launched most recently in late 2000 and brokered by Razali in a series of visits.
Since the clash, offices of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party have been shut and other party leaders are under house arrest.
Suu Kyi's detention has drawn sharp criticism from around the world and threats of more economic sanctions from the US.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent struggle for democracy, spent six years under house arrest in 1989-95. Her party won general elections in 1990 but was blocked by the military from taking power.
RSS