New Straits Times
AFP

YANGON, Sept 23: Indonesian envoy Ali Alatas met Burmese leader Senior General Than Shwe today on the last working day of a mission focused on detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, an embassy official said.

The diplomat said Ali, who arrived in Yangon on Sunday, was also due to see Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win later in the day.

"We are not demanding the government to release Suu Kyi, we are just offering to help ...the Myanmar government in the political situation it faces now," he said.

The diplomat said Indonesia was anxious to avoid the topic of the democracy icon's continuing detention from derailing a summit of Southeast Asian leaders, which it is hosting in Bali next month.

"We want to avoid having Suu Kyi raised in the agenda," he said of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meeting at which newly appointed Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt will represent the military state.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel peace laureate, has been detained at a secret location since a violent ambush of her supporters by a pro-junta gang in northern Myanmar on May 30.

The 58-year-old underwent major gynaecological surgery last week and is still recuperating at a private hospital in Yangon, her doctor Dr Tin Myo Win has said.

Dr Myo Win said at an interview with Radio Free Asia broadcast today that Suu Kyi's recovery has been "very quick" and that she was eating normally.

"She is well enough to take in visitors," he said, igniting speculation that a meeting with Ali may be in the offing.

However, the Indonesian diplomat said that was unlikely as the former foreign minister had not asked for permission to see her. "He's not trying to meet her, he has not made any request to the government." Last night Ali held talks with Khin Nyunt and presented him with a letter from Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. As the current chairman of Asean, Indonesia has urged the junta to free Suu Kyi before the Bali meeting.

Ali served as foreign minister under Indonesia's longtime ruler Suharto, a strongman who was considered a friend and a role model by the Myanmar junta. — AFP