Razaly's trip postponed due to coup attempt

Razaly's trip postponed due to coup attempt

Agence France-Presse, Yangon

Myanmar's military regime admitted on Tuesday they asked United
Nations special envoy Razali Ismail to postpone his planned visit
to Yangon this week because of a recent coup attempt.

"The Myanmar authorities concerned are quite preoccupied with
issues that need immediate attention after the recent coup
attempt," a government spokesman said.

"The UN envoy Mr. Razali Ismail has been informed and kindly
requested to postpone his visit to Myanmar at a date convenient
to both sides in the near future," he said in a statement.

The military government announced on March 7 that it had
scuttled a coup plot mounted by the family of former dictator Ne
Win who ruled the country until 1988.

The son-in-law and three grandsons of the 92-year-old autocrat
were arrested while Ne Win and his daughter Sandar Win remain
under heavy guard at their lakeside residence in Yangon.

A three-day mission by a four-member European Union delegation
was allowed to go ahead last week, but on Monday the UN said
Razali's trip due to start on Tuesday had "been postponed due to
illness of the deputy foreign minister".

Sources in Yangon said deputy foreign minister Khin Maung Win
was supposed to host Razali in what would have been his seventh
visit to the country since his appointment in April 2000.

"We are disappointed to hear of this development, but we hope
that the mission can be rescheduled as soon as possible in order
to facilitate the national reconciliation process," said UN
spokeswoman Marie Okabe on Monday.

During the trip, Razali had been expected to try to revitalize
long-running national reconciliation talks between the junta and
the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel
Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

He was scheduled to meet Myanmar's leader Senior General Than
Shwe and intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt as well
as various other government officials and NLD leaders, including
Aung San Suu Kyi.

Khin Nyunt failed to meet the European Union (EU) delegation
that visited Myanmar last week, although such a meeting had been
on their three-day schedule. No reason was given for his
cancellation.

EU team leader Rafel Conde said he discussed the coup
aftermath with other junta leaders who said "the matter was well
in control and it would have no impact on the ongoing process of
national reconciliation."

In an apparent gesture of goodwill, the government released
batches of prisoners on all three days of the EU delegation's
visit, including five members of Suu Kyi's pro-democracy NLD.

On Tuesday it released another 23 female prisoners, all either
pregnant or with young children, "on humanitarian grounds",
bringing to 295 the number of women released from jail since the
end of last month.