U.N. Myanmar envoy criticizes holding of dissident

By Patrick Worsnip

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. envoy to Myanmar criticized its extension of the house arrest of a top opposition politician on Wednesday but said its government might make a concession on his own next visit to the country.

Myanmar's ruling military junta ordered Tin Oo, number two to detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, confined for another year. He has been under house arrest since May 2003.

"That's not helpful. That's not what the international community would like to see," envoy Ibrahim Gambari said after U.N. officials and diplomats met to discuss Myanmar's weekend announcement of a constitutional referendum and elections.

But Gambari said he believed the junta might allow him to pay his third visit to try to resolve the political crisis since September's crackdown on monk-led pro-democracy protests sooner than the mid-April date it had proposed.

"I need to go there sooner rather than later, much sooner than April, and I believe that will happen," he told reporters. "I think they are reconsidering -- bringing it earlier.

"Each time I go we should be making progress in addressing the concerns of the international community -- release of Aung San Suu Kyi, political prisoners, more substantive dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and the government, and so on."

He gave no specific date. Aides said he would leave New York on Saturday for visits to Myanmar's neighbors China, Indonesia and Singapore. Gambari sees regional powers as central to pushing Myanmar into political concessions, but they have been reluctant to agree to sanctions or other tough measures.

The junta made a surprise announcement on Saturday of a referendum on a new, as yet unfinished, constitution in May to be a followed by a general election in 2010.