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Myanmar : Suu Kyi fails to attend father’s memorial : Doubts over talks with junta |
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Myanmar Opposition leader Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi failed to turn up for a major national ceremony commemorating the death of her father in a possible sign that talks with the military government are in trouble. The democracy movement leader was represented by senior party member Mr. U. Lwin, who laid a wreath on her behalf at Martyr’s Mausoleum at the foot of the Shwedagon Pagoda in central Yangon. The annual ceremony, marking the anniversary of the 1947 assassination of independence hero General Aung San, was in the early morning in heavy rain attended by several thousand government officials, civil servants and foreign diplomats. The ruling military was represented by Minister for Culture Win Sein, who laid a wreath on behalf of the government. Ms. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won 1990 elections but the military refused to let her take power. The two sides have been engaged in delicate political negotiations since October last year. There had been rumours that restrictions on Suu Kyi, under de facto house arrest since September, would be lifted ahead of the martyrs’ Day ceremony. No information has been released on the progress of the talks and only a handful of foreign diplomats have been given access to her. Despite her rift with the ruling generals, Ms. Suu Kyi has always attended the ceremony in recent years. But diplomats and officials said last week Suu Kyi had decided not to attend the today’s ceremony.
Foreign diplomats and observers said if she failed to appear, it would be widely interpreted as a sign that the talks with the government were not going well. Earlier this year, diplomatic sources said the talks appeared to have stalled, but subsequent prisoners released and a visit by United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail, who helped broker the talks, stirred hopes that negotiations were still on track. Since the start of the talks in October, 151 NLD detainees have been released and the party has been given permission to reopen 18 of its branch offices. Eleven party members were released on the eve of Martyrs’ Day, the anniversary of the assassination of Suu Kyi’s father and eight senior officials on July 19, 1947. Ms. Suu Kyi failed to attend Martyr’s Day when under official house arrest from 1989 to 1995. She attended the 1995 ceremony, which occurred after her release.
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