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Published on October 10, 2007

The junta's leaders have offered to meet with Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest, but only on the condition she renounce the widespread calls for international sanctions against the military regime, which has been widely condemned for breaking up the protests on September 26 and 27.

"The success of a dialogue is based on sincerity and the spirit of give and take," said the National League for Democracy in a statement. "The will for achieving success is also crucial and there should not be any preconditions."

The statement came after the junta said it hoped to achieve "smooth relations" with Suu Kyi. On Monday, the regime suggested her release from house arrest was unlikely anytime soon.

The junta launched a crackdown on a massive protest last month killing more than a dozen protesters. Thousands, along with Buddhists monks were detained.

Global outrage was directed at the junta, with the international community condemning the crackdown and calling for the release of the 62-year-old Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years without trial.

While many nations in the West have called for sanctions to punish the regime and force it to open up the political process, China - which has a veto on the UN Security Council and put in efforts to soften a prepared statement of condemnation by the council - is arguing against sanctions.

"Sanctions or pressure will not help to solve the issue in Myanmar [Bur-ma]," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing yesterday.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, a mouthpiece of the junta, said that Deputy Labour Minister Aung Kyi had been appointed "minister for relations" to coordinate contacts with Suu Kyi. UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari suggested creating the Cabinet-level job during his visit to the military-ruled earlier this month, the paper said.

The military presence has considerably eased in Rangoon's streets in recent days. There were no more barricades, except along the road going to Suu Kyi's house, which has three layers of barbed wire barricades and sandbagged troop positions.

Agencies

The Nation