Top UN envoy, Vijay Nambiar (pictured), will visit Myanmar this week for the first time since the dissolution of the junta and the appointment of a nominally civilian government, an official said Tuesday.A top UN envoy will visit Burma this week for the first time since the dissolution of the junta and the appointment of a nominally civilian government, an official said Tuesday.
Vijay Nambiar, the chief of staff to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, was expected to meet government figures and opposition figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi, according to a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
He met Suu Kyi shortly after her release from house arrest on a visit in November, during which he also urged the government to address concerns over the election earlier that month, which was widely dismissed as a sham.
"Mr Nambiar will come to Burma this week. He's likely to meet with government officials and the opposition as well as with political parties," the Burma official told AFP, declining to be named.
Official sources in Naypyidaw said new President Thein Sein was not scheduled to meet with Nambiar, but foreign minister Wunna Maung Lwin would meet him on Wednesday in the capital.
The envoy was set to meet some political parties in Rangoon on Friday, including the National Democratic Force (NDF), a breakaway party from the NLD.
"Our party chairman Dr Than Nyein will go there. We have no idea yet what we have to discuss," said Khin Maung Swe, an NDF leader.
Burma's junta, the State Peace and Development Council, was disbanded at the end of March following the November polls, which were marred by the absence of Suu Kyi and complaints of cheating and intimidation.
The NLD won the previous vote in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.
---Bangkok Post---
