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Myanmar postpones visit by top U.N.



Subject: Myanmar postpones visit by top U.N. diplomat

"Myanmar postpones visit by top U.N. diplomat"
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[ABC News.com, 9.9.99]

BANGKOK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government  has postponed a
visit by a senior U.N. official aimed at  encouraging political
liberalisation in Myanmar, a U.N. source  said on Thursday.
The Yangon-based source said Assistant Secretary-General  Alvaro de Soto,
the U.N.'s second-ranking official for political  affairs, had been due in
Myanmar around the middle of this  month.

"The mission has been postponed by the government. I  wouldn't say
cancelled -- they want him to come at some later  date," said the source,
who did not want to be identified by  name, adding that no explanation had
been given for the  decision.

The Yangon government did not immediately respond to a  request for comment
on the issue.

De Soto visited Myanmar last November as a special  representative of U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and raised  the possibility of development aid
if the government were to  open a dialogue with the country's main
opposition party.

The postponement of his visit comes as Myanmar has tightened  security
countrywide to thwart a call by dissidents in exile for  a national uprising
starting from Thursday.

A diplomat called the postponement "very peculiar." "I  don't know why they
would have scheduled something for this  time, then shortly before it have
postponed it."

Myanmar said earlier this year it was willing to accept de  Soto's mission,
but also said it was not interested in aid with  political strings attached.

Myanmar says it will not enter a dialogue with the  opposition National
League for Democracy until the party led by  Nobel Peace laureate Aung San
Suu Kyi disbands a committee it  established last year to represent
parliament in a challenge to  military rule.

The NLD won Myanmar's last election in 1990 by a landslide  but the
government ignored the result and has since tried to  silence the party
through a campaign of arrests and intimidation.