U.N. envoy leaves Myanmar, fails to meet Suu Kyi

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - A U.N. envoy left Myanmar on Saturday after failing to meet detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi or coax concessions from the military junta during his six-day mission, diplomats said.

Ibrahim Gambari, on his sixth visit as part of a U.N. push for reforms in the former Burma, failed twice to meet the 63-year-old Nobel peace laureate who has been under house arrest for most of the past five years.

Gambari, who briefed diplomats before leaving the former capital Yangon, gave no reasons why Suu Kyi did not meet with him as she had done in past visits.

"Mr. Gambari did not get a chance to meet with her despite two attempts," state-run MTRV reported hours after the Nigerian diplomat had left the former Burma.

Suu Kyi's absence prompted speculation she was fed up with the junta's treatment of the emissary and the lack of meaningful dialogue between her party and the regime.

In a brief statement, Gambari made no mention of his attempts to meet Suu Kyi but said he had "open and extensive" meetings with Prime Minister Thein Sein and other government officials, although he did not have an audience with junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe.

Yangon-based diplomats briefed by Gambari said he had again urged the regime to release some 2,000 political prisoners and begin a proper dialogue with the opposition.

"He said he raised some points with the government and hoped to return. In terms of concrete outcomes, there was not much," said one Western diplomat who declined to be named.

ROADMAP

Gambari arrived on Monday -- his fourth trip since pro-democracy protests were crushed last September -- in another bid to kick-start talks between Suu Kyi and the generals after they pushed through a new constitution in a referendum in May.

The charter, which guarantees the army 25 percent of seats in parliament and control of key ministries, passed with 92 percent approval despite being postponed in parts of the country due to cyclone Nargis. There was no outside monitoring.

Gambari has had little to show for his efforts to get the junta to include Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) in its plans to cede political control in a seven-step "roadmap to democracy".

Analysts say the new constitution and the junta's rigid adherence to the "roadmap" leading to elections in 2010 rendered Gambari's mission virtually pointless.

A spokesman for the NLD, the party that won an election landslide in 1990 only to be denied power by the military, expressed surprise Suu Kyi did not meet Gambari.

Suu Kyi failed to attend a scheduled meeting on Wednesday. A few days later, two U.N. representatives accompanied by government officials went to Suu Kyi's house to try to arrange a meeting for Gambari, but they too were rebuffed.