UN envoy meets Myanmar junta chief

UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari met separately with junta chief Than Shwe and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday, ending a four-day mission to Myanmar to try to halt a crackdown on the biggest democracy protests in 20 years.

Mr Gambari expects to return to the former Burma in early November at the government's request, UN sources said.

As he left Myanmar, there was no word on whether Mr Gambari's single meeting with Senior General Than Shwe, who rarely heeds the outside world, had persuaded him to relax his iron grip or start talks with Ms Suu Kyi, a long-detained Nobel laureate. Mr Gambari, a former Nigerian Foreign Minister, was returning to New York on Friday after carrying a message from Ms Suu Kyi to the military government, said the UN sources, who did not give further details.

Last week's monk-led protests in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, of up to 100,000 people and marches in other areas were halted by security forces who raided monasteries, imposed curfews and killed 10 people, by the official count.

The death toll is likely far higher, human rights groups and Western governments say. Some feared a repeat of 1988, when the army crushed a nationwide uprising and killed an estimated 3,000 people over several months.