((NOTE: If Gambari really went to Lashio to see pro-government monks and returns from Burma with nothing, he should be fired.))
Gambari to Meet Junta Chief on Tuesday
By The Irrawaddy
October 01, 2007—UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari will meet the junta’s top leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe on Tuesday in a face-to-face effort to find a positive breakthrough in Burma's crisis.
The envoy met the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Sunday after arriving in Rangoon on Saturday. The meeting was one of Gambari's stated goals. No details were revealed of what they discussed in the 90-minute meeting.
He also met acting Prime Minister Lt-Gen Thein Sein, the deputy foreign minister, and ministers of the information and culture ministries in the remote capital of Naypyidaw, nearly 400 km northwest of Rangoon.
Win Min, an observer in exile, said by allowing Gambari to meet lower ranking leaders, the junta was probably able to get a better idea of Gambari's concerns and be able to brief Than Shwe on how to handle their encounter.
On Monday, Gambari flew back to Naypyidaw in an attempt to meet Than Shwe, but it never happened.
Instead, the special envoy was carted off on a junket to Lashio to witness, critics say, a regime organized pro-government demonstration led by monks.
The official purpose of the government-sponsored trip was to attend an EU seminar on its relations with Southeast Asia, a bizarre move when considering the tragic days of bloodshed, beatings and mass arrests that have taken place in recent weeks.
A journalist based in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy on Monday that local journalists are invited to attend a press conference to be conducted by Gambari, probably to be held after his visit with Than Shwe.
... and it seems that Than Shwe's family left the country last week (for Singapore) and that he recently had hospital treatment over there (for cancer). And Bagan Air is owned by his son-in-law.
Or did everyone know all that already? Article is here
And a PS ... had you all heard that the BBC has bought Lonely Planet books ?
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<hr>And a PS ... had you all heard that the BBC has bought Lonely Planet books ?<hr></blockquote>
Now that, I did not know! click here
I have to say that I had been working under the perhaps naive assumption that the regime was unable to produce Than Shwe, and that there was some sort of a struggle for leadership at the top. Obviously if these reports of ongoing brutality are accurate (or even partially accurate,) then I guess it doesn't make any difference.
I keep looking for bright spots amid the horror, and I am not finding any...
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