UN special envoy due in Jakarta

UN special envoy due in Jakarta

Agence France-Presse, Jakarta

A UN special envoy will hold talks in Indonesia this weekend amid heightened international pressure for the release of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Special envoy on Myanmar Razali Ismail will hold informal talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda, ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told AFP on Friday.

Talks will focus on the situation in the military-ruled country but are "not directly" connected to a plan by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to send a delegation to Myanmar, Marty said.

Indonesia, the grouping's new chairman, is due to lead the delegation. No time has been set for the visit.

ASEAN foreign ministers meeting this month called for Suu Kyi's release, breaking a decades-old convention of non- interference in members' internal affairs.

Myanmar's ruling junta announced on May 31 that the popular leader had been detained. She was held after a junta-backed mob attacked her supporters in violence feared to have left dozens dead.

On Wednesday, Razali told Japanese foreign minister Yoriko Kawaguchi that Suu Kyi was being detained in poor surroundings at a Yangon prison when he was allowed to meet her on June 10.

Suu Kyi's detention has sparked outrage among the international community, led by the United States and the European Union which have beefed up their sanctions against the Yangon regime.

Japan, Myanmar's largest donor, on Wednesday announced it had suspended new economic aid to the impoverished country.

Malaysia's foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said on Thursday the detention of the Nobel laureate had damaged ASEAN's reputation and was a setback for the region.