Burma summons top US diplomat

The top US diplomat in Burma was summoned today for rare talks with the hardline government a day after its leader announced a conditional offer to meet detained democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Shari Villarosa, the highest American official in Burma, received word yesterday that she had been invited to meet the military-led government that orchestrated a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters last week, the US State Department said in Washington.

Villarosa has been a vocal critic of the crackdown. During her visit, she was expected to repeat the US view that the regime must meet democratic opposition groups and “stop the iron crackdown” on peaceful demonstrators, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

The talks are being held in Naypyitaw, the regime’s remote capital carved out of the jungle about 240 miles north of Rangoon.

Hoping to deflect outrage over soldiers gunning down protesters, Burma’s junta chief Senior General Than Shwe announced that he was willing to talk to Suu Kyi, the democratic opposition leader – but only if she stopped calling for international sanctions.

Than Shwe also insisted that Suu Kyi stop urging her countrymen to confront the military regime, state television and radio said in reporting on the conditions set by the junta leader during a meeting this week with a special United Nations envoy.

The surprise move appeared to stave off economic sanctions, thereby keeping Burma’s bountiful natural resources on world markets, while also pleasing giant neighbour China, which worries that the unrest could cause problems for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The state media announcement came a few hours before UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari briefed UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in New York on his four-day trip seeking to persuade Burma’s military leaders to end the crackdown on democracy activists.

Many governments have urged stern UN Security Council action against Burma, but members China and Russia have ruled out any council action, saying the crisis did not threaten international peace and security.

State media in Burma gave new figures yesterday for the number of people arrested during last week’s bloody assault by troops. The reports said nearly 2,100 people had been detained, with almost 700 already released.

The government has said 10 people were killed when security forces broke up the mass demonstrations, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of Buddhist monks who were leading the protests.

In reporting on Than Shwe’s meeting with Gambari, state media quoted the general as saying that “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has called for confrontation, utter devastation, economic sanctions and all other sanctions”.

While Suu Kyi has previously voiced support for economic sanctions against the junta, she has not publicly called for the devastation of her homeland or the government.

“If she abandons these calls, Senior General Than Shwe told Mr Gambari that he will personally meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” the state media report said.

The report’s use of the title “daw” was a conciliatory gesture. “Daw” is a term of respect for older women in Burma and it was an unusually polite reference to Suu Kyi, a far cry from the usual way state media denigrates her as a foreign puppet or worse.

Reaction to the olive branch was mixed.

“I don’t believe there’s one iota of sincerity” in the junta’s offer, Josef Silverstein, a retired Rutgers professor and Burma expert, said from Princeton, New Jersey.

But, Silverstein added, he thought Suu Kyi would take up the offer, since she has requested such talks over a decade.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, scoffed at the general’s proposal. “Applying such conditions shows the government is not really sincere about meeting her,” he said.

Oxford-educated Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her democracy campaign. Her party won elections in 1990 but the junta refused to accept the results.

Burma has been ruled by the military since 1962. The current junta came to power after routing a 1988 pro-democracy uprising in bloodshed that killed at least 3,000 people.