UN envoy: Suu Kyi well and in good spirits

A United Nations envoy to Burma met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today and said she was “well and in good spirits”.

Razali Ismail could give no indication when the Nobel Peace Prize winner would be released by the military junta.

The veteran Malaysian diplomat is the first outsider to meet Suu Kyi since she was detained at a secret location on May 30 following clashes between her supporters and pro-junta thugs. There have been widespread concerns that she may have been injured.

“I can assure you she is well and in good spirits, with no injury on the face, arm. No injury. No scratch, nothing,” Razali said after an hour long meeting with Suu Kyi, who is the widow of an Oxford don.

He refused to say where the meeting took place, but a lot of activity was seen near the Defence Ministry guesthouse in the capital Rangoon.

It was not known if Suu Kyi was being held there, or whether she was driven there for the meeting with Razali.

Asked if she had talked about the May 30 incident, he said: “She has her version and I have taken that into account. I have different reports of this and that.” He declined to say anymore.

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 hint from the junta when she would be freed.

Razali got permission to meet her in talks yesterday with Deputy Senior Gen Maung Aye, the number two 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 would say only that she was unhurt and in custody in a “safe place”.

Razali was due to leave Burma later today. He said he would like to come back “as soon as possible”.

He said he “hoped and prayed” Suu Kyi would be free by the time he returned, to “hasten the process of national reconciliation”.

The US State Department 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, the 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.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent 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.