US challenges Burma junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi this week

22 May 2006 (AFP) - The United States welcomed a rare meeting between a top UN envoy and Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi but called on the Southeast Asian state's military junta to release the dissident this week when her current term of house arrest expires.

The State Department said Washington was pleased that visiting UN undersecretary for political affairs Ibrahim Gambari was able to see Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon at the weekend but cautioned that it did not reflect progress in democratic reforms.

"The regime's decision to allow them to meet is positive, but by itself does not constitute progress," department spokesman Justin Higgins told AFP. "The regime can show progress by releasing Aung San Suu Kyi no later than May 27, when her detention order expires, and by engaging all political actors in a genuine dialogue that empowers Burma's people to determine their own future," Higgins said.

In a surprise move, the junta allowed Gambari to see 60-year-old Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi at a military guest house in Yangon Saturday for about one hour.

The meeting followed Gambari's talks with Myanmar's reclusive leader Senior General Than Shwe at a secret jungle compound outside the central town of Pyinmana.

The junta crushed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and two years later rejected the results of national elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

She has spent more than 10 of the last 17 years under house arrest in Yangon and the junta was likely to extend her house arrest later this month. She has also been barred from seeing foreigners for more than two years.

Analysts said Myanmar set up the meeting with UN envoy in an attempt to block UN Security Council action against the junta amid growing international pressure on the regime for democratic reforms.

The United States put the international spotlight on Myanmar in December when it pushed the Security Council to hold a briefing on the junta's human rights and other problems for the first time.

Last week, US President George W. Bush renewed economic sanctions on Myanmar for another year and the US Senate adopted a resolution calling on Washington to lead UN Security Council action against Myanmar.

The US Senate also condemned Myanmar for its latest offensive against ethnic Karen rebels, reportedly the most serious in a decade. Some 11,000 people are believed to have fled their homes because of the violence.