ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

The Tatmadaw as the Myanmar military is called, has been resorting to dilatory tactics in regard to the talks with detained Nobel peace laureate and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi leaving her frustrated..

NOBEL PEACE laureate and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is increasingly convinced that the Myanmar military junta is leading her and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) up the garden path on its promise of a dialogue for ushering in political change in the country.

In a rare meeting allowed by the military junta with her party functionaries she was stated to have told them that she was extremely dissatisfied with the tardy pace of talks with the regime for political reforms in Myanmar. Wednesday (Jan 30) was the second time in the last three months that the junta has allowed her to meet her party leaders. Her party leaders including members of the central executive committee met the detained general secretary of the party at a military guesthouse in former capital Yangon, according to the Myanmarese media in exile, in Thailand and India.

The Nobel laureate was picked up by the military from her lakeside villa on Yangon's University Avenue. She has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years that she has been in Myanmar. She was last detained in May 2003.

At the meeting with her party functionaries she was said to have stated that she was frustrated over the sheer lack of progress on talks with the junta. The regime to ward off international pressure and to counter the outrage in the international community following the brutal crackdown on the protests by students, monks and the people last September had agreed to initiate a process of dialogue with the opposition. The Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is called, appointed a senior Myanmar Army official Aung Kyi, as the Liaison minister to liaise between the junta supremo Than Shwe and Suu Kyi.

The NLD general secretary was of the opinion that the four meetings she had had with the Liaison minister were of little use. She wanted well-defined progress, which is not happening. She was scheduled to meet the minister for the fifth time, on Wednesday. Earlier, she had told the junta representative that the talks for change in Myanmar ought to include representatives

of Myanmar’s myriad ethnic groups, who are fighting for autonomy or independence for the last five decades. She also communicated to the minister that the talks should not be delayed and that she be allowed to meet her party functionaries periodically so that she can discuss affairs of her party and the status of the talks.

Aung San Suu Kyi was quoted as telling her colleagues that her meetings with the minister and her party functionaries had not progressed. "Let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst," she was quoted as saying. Detailing the meetings with the Liaison minister to her colleagues she said that the meetings with her party leaders might give rise to false hope.