Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will meet with a government Myanmar minister next week, an official said on Saturday, the first known contact between the Nobel laureate and the new army-backed civilian government.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years in detention at the behest of Myanmar’s former military dictators, was set to meet today with Myanmar Labor Minister Aung Kyi, who represented the ruling generals in previous talks with the opposition figurehead.
It is not known whether the meeting will signal a softening in stance by the new government, which is led by members of the junta that controlled Myanmar for two decades and was ardently opposed to Aung San Suu Kyi and her former political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).
In his former role as relations minister for the military junta, Aung Kyi met Aung San Suu Kyi 10 times while she was under house arrest.
Aung Kyi is regarded as one of the more moderate ministers in Myanmar’s army-dominated government.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 66, was released on Nov. 13 last year, six days after a long-awaited election widely derided as a sham to entrench military rule behind a veneer of democracy.
In numerous media interviews, Aung San Suu Kyi expressed a desire to hold dialogue with the new government, which took office in April, to press for some reforms to help Myanmar’s people. The government did not respond.
She has been guarded in her comments and has been careful not to criticize the new government or the election and the new administration has given her unprecedented freedom to travel and meet with journalists, diplomats and foreign envoys.
State newspapers, which serve as mouthpieces for the government, have occasionally criticized Aung San Suu Kyi and warned her she would meet “a tragic end” if her or the NLD tried to interfere with its running of the country.
Analysts say it is likely Myanmar’s rulers are aware of Aung San Suu Kyi’s influence on the international community and realize she would need to be involved if there were to be a review of Western sanctions in place since 1988.
NLD spokesman Han Tha Myint said he was not aware of the meeting, but welcomed the government’s move to engage with Aung San Suu Kyi.
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