U.N. denied meeting with Myanmar leaders

YANGON, Myanmar – A U.N. envoy was unable to meet with Myanmar’s top two junta leaders in his effort to persuade them to ease a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters but was allowed a session Sunday with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The military government, meanwhile, flooded the main city of Yangon with troops, swelling their numbers to about 20,000 by Sunday and ensuring that almost all demonstrators would remain off the streets, a diplomat said.

Scores of people also were arrested overnight, further weakening the flagging uprising against 45 years of military dictatorship.

One protest was reported Sunday in the western state of Rakhine where more than 800 people marched in the town of Taunggok, shouting “Release all political prisoners!” Police, soldiers and junta supporters blocked the road, forcing the protesters to disperse, a local resident said.

Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.’s special envoy to Myanmar – also known as Burma – was sent to the country to try to persuade the military junta to halt its crackdown. Soldiers have shot and killed protesters, ransacked Buddhist monasteries, beaten monks and dissidents and arrested an estimated 1,000 people in the last week alone.

Gambari began Sunday by meeting with several officials in Myanmar’s new bunker-like capital of Naypyitaw. The meeting, however, did not include the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, or his deputy, Gen. Maung Aye, the two key figures whom Gambari had been pushing to speak with before his arrival.

He was then unexpectedly flown back to the main city of Yangon and whisked to the State Guest House. Suu Kyi was briefly freed from house detention and brought over to speak with him for more than an hour, according to U.N. officials.