UN-Burma meeting 'a failure'

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has admitted his special envoy’s meeting with Burma’s military leaders about their violent crackdown on democracy activists did not achieve anything.

Mr Ban said, “You cannot ... call it a success.” But he added: “I was relatively relieved that he was first of all able to meet with leaders of the Burma government as well as Madame Aung San Suu Kyi,” the opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate who is under house arrest.

Envoy Ibrahim Gambari will brief the UN Security Council tomorrow on his visit, during which he was repeatedly snubbed by the military junta before finally being granted a meeting on his last day in the country.

“We will discuss closely with the Security Council members what action to take in the future,” said Mr Ban.

Mr Gambari’s four-day trip came after troops quelled mass pro-democracy protests with gunfire last week. The government is continuing to round up suspected activists.

The US, Britain, France and some other council members want his briefing to be open and to have members speak in public as well, but Russia and China want the meeting to be private.