UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending his top envoy to Myanmar at the end of the month to discuss reviving the national reconciliation process. The envoy is expected to meet pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and seek her immediate release, a UN spokesman said.
Razali Ismail will travel to Myanmar from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, said Annan spokesman Fred Eckhard.
His visit will take place as Suu Kyi, 58, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, recuperates from what was described as a major three-hour gynecological operation on Friday.
She was detained and held at an unknown location after a bloody confrontation between her followers and supporters of the country's ruling military junta on May 30 in northern Myanmar.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a national election more than a decade ago in Myanmar, also known as Burma, but the junta refused to yield power.
Since 1990, Suu Kyi has been kept under various periods of house arrest. Her latest detention halted reconciliation talks that she had begun with the junta in October 2000.
Annan "remains concerned about the well-being of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders and reiterates his call that they should be released without further delay," Eckhard said. Daw is an honorific title.
Annan expects Razali to meet Suu Kyi, "find out her condition and work with government officials towards her immediate and unconditional release," the UN spokesman said.
The secretary-general also expects Razali "to discuss with Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt and other government leaders ways in which to revive the national reconciliation process, which came to a standstill after the incident of May 30," Eckhard said.
Razali brokered the reconciliation talks and later secured Suu Kyi's release in May last year from more than 18 months of house arrest.
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