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Burmese Junta Not Interested in Dialogue with Opposition, EIU Says
By Wai Moe January 2, 2008

Burma’s junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), “fails to show any interest in talks” with Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said on Tuesday.
In its January 2008 report on Burma, the London-based EIU, an influential think tank, said the junta took a small step forward in October with the appointment of Aung Kyi, the labor minister, as a liaison officer to meet the detained leader of the opposition, Suu Kyi.
The liaison officer subsequently met with Suu Kyi three times. The most recent meeting was on November 19, and since then “the junta has shown no interest in holding a dialogue with the opposition.”
Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the head of the junta, has shown no sign of honoring the commitment to meet with Suu Kyi himself that he made in September during talks with the UN Special Envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari.
The EIU added that there is certainly no sign that the junta has heeded Suu Kyi’s recent call for preliminary confidence building talks with Aung Kyi to move swiftly towards substantive dialogue with senior members of the junta.
The junta has appointed 54 members of a commission to draft a new constitution, but failed to include any members of opposition groups. The minister of information, Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, rejected calls by the UN to include opposition, indicating the commission would be implementing decisions already taken by the National Convention, the body set up by the junta to agree on principles to be included in the new constitution, the report said.
The EIU also noted Gambari’s concerns over the continued detention of Suu Kyi and the ongoing arrests of those involved in the pro-democracy demonstrations, calling it “counter to the spirit of national reconciliation.”
The EIU said Asean, as a regional body, “is not prepared to step up pressure on the junta.” It noted that Gambari’s scheduled briefing on Burma to Asean leaders in November was cancelled at the last minute after strong opposition from the junta’s Prime Minister, Lt-Gen Thein Sein.
Referring to the junta’s commitment to dialogue, a spokesperson of the NLD, Han Thar Myint, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the last talk between Suu Kyi and Aung Kyi was six weeks ago. The NLD has called for dialogue on national conciliation for 20 years, he said, and the junta has never responded.
“Despite no sign from the junta, the NLD’s commitment to dialogue still remains,” said Han Thar Myint.
Many analysts, including the EIU, say the junta’s latest round of talks with Suu Kyi after the brutal crackdowns on mass demonstrations in September is a ploy to appease the international community.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Signh was scheduled to meet with his counterpart, the junta’s foreign minister, Nyan Win, on Wednesday in New Delhi. Signh is expected to call on the junta to speed up the democratization process as well as strengthen bilateral economic ties. Nyan Win arrived in India on Monday