EU seeks to spur Myanmar talks after coup plot
EU seeks to spur Myanmar talks after coup plot
Agencies, Yangon
Just days after Myanmar's junta said it foiled a coup plot, European officials begin a short visit on Wednesday in a bid to encourage democratic reforms and end the impoverished nation's long isolation.
The delegation plans to meet pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest for more than a year, and will try to assess whether government claims to have uncovered a planned coup signal a major shift in the political landscape.
The ruling junta says the son-in-law and three grandsons of elderly former dictator Ne Win had been plotting to install a puppet government, aided by a handful of senior commanders and a well-known astrologer and black magic expert.
The claims have caused a sensation in Yangon. Official newspapers, which carried a long report on the coup plot on Wednesday, sold out early in the day and residents were paying up to 10 times the cover price to get their hands on a copy.
"Business was very brisk this morning," said one vendor. "I sold about 100 newspapers in less than 20 minutes."
But many foreign diplomats are skeptical that a coup was being planned, saying the allegations may be the latest salvo in a power struggle between Myanmar's top generals.
Diplomats say the government is divided over how to deal with Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD), which won elections in 1990 but was prevented from taking power.
The military has been holding confidential talks with Suu Kyi since October 2000, saying it wants to agree a framework for a transition to civilian rule. But Suu Kyi remains under house arrest, and the talks have produced no concrete results.
Meanwhile, Myanmar's military junta on Wednesday freed 25 women prisoners, bringing to 220 the number released in batches over the past two weeks.
"Twenty-five female detainees, all either pregnant or with young children, were released today on humanitarian grounds from various correctional facilities," a junta spokesman said in a statement.