BURMA: Burma's Ms Aung San Suu Kyi was due to meet Mandalay's military commander yesterday in what party members described as a "significant development" during her first political trip outside the capital since her release from house arrest.
It is understood to be Ms Suu Kyi's first meeting with a junta official since her May 6th release."After lunch she is going to meet the military commander of the Mandalay central military command, who is also chairman of the regional State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Maj Gen Ye Myint," a source from the National League for Democracy said. The SPDC is the official name of Burma's ruling military regime.
Observers have expressed concern since the leader's release that her secret dialogue on national reconciliation with the ruling military regime had stalled as she had apparently not met any SPDC officials. The talks began in October 2000.
The hugely popular leader left Rangoon last Saturday for her first political trip outside the capital since she was freed from 19 months' house arrest.
The trip has significance because Mandalay, lying some 695 kilometres north of Rangoon, was the city the ruling military regime barred her from travelling to in September 2000. A trip such as this was expected by observers to be a test of the regime's undertaking to grant Ms Suu Kyi freedom of movement.
- (AFP)