Detained opposition head Aung San Suu Kyi is "very optimistic" about the UN-promoted process for reconciliation between Myanmar's military government and pro-democracy forces, top members of her party said yesterday.
Three executive members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and a party spokesman were allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday for the first time in more than three years.
Their meeting was permitted by the government after UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Thursday completed a six-day visit to Myanmar to promote a dialogue between the ruling junta and the Nobel peace prize winner.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win, speaking after he and his colleagues met for about an hour with Aung San Suu Kyi, said she believes the military authorities now have the will to achieve national reconciliation.
He said she told them that the government's crackdown on September's mass pro-democracy demonstrations was "devastating for the NLD, the government and the people."
"She said a healing process such as the release of political prisoners is essential," Nyan Win said.
Authorities in Myanmar say the Sept. 26 and Sept. 27 crackdown on pro-democracy protests killed 10 people, though diplomats and dissidents say the death toll was much higher. Thousands were arrested, with the events triggering intense global condemnation.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in government detention for 12 of the past 18 years, and continuously since May 2003.
Asked to describe Aung San Suu Kyi's condition after being under house arrest continuously for more than four years, Nyan Win said she looks "fit, well and energetic like before. She is full of ideas."
Aung San Suu Kyi also held talks with Aung Kyi, who was appointed the junta's "minister for relations" with her last month.
The government unexpectedly announced on Thursday that Aung San Suu Kyi would be allowed to meet with her party's top officials.
Its statement, broadcast on state radio and TV, came just hours after Gambari ended his second mission to broker negotiations between the military regime and pro-democracy leaders.
He met with Aung San Suu Kyi for an hour Thursday and later released a statement on her behalf.
"In the interest of the nation, I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success," Aung San Suu Kyi said in her statement, which Gambari read aloud on Thursday evening in Singapore.
The statement was apparently Aung San Suu Kyi first since her latest detention began in 2003.
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