Saturday, 4 July 2009UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) meets with Burma's junta leader Senior General Than Shwe (R), at the Bayint Naung Yeiktha, in Naypyidaw, 03 Jul 2009U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says Burma's military government has again rejected his request to meet with jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
After a 30-minute meeting Saturday with Burma's military ruler General Than Shwe, Mr. Ban told reporters that he was deeply disappointed.
Mr. Ban met Saturday for a second time with the senior general in the country's remote administrative capital, Naypyitaw, to push for the release of political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and for a national reconciliation ahead of next year's elections.
The opposition leader is on trial for alleged violations of the terms of her house arrest.
The trial was scheduled to resume Friday, the day of Mr. Ban's arrival, but was postponed for a week.
The Nobel Prize laureate is facing a five-year prison term. The charges stem from a May visit by an American intruder who swam to her lakeside home uninvited. She says she permitted him to rest overnight after he pleaded exhaustion.
The world community has called the trial a sham, intended to keep her in prison through the 2010 elections. Previous U.N. efforts to obtain Aung San Su Kyi's release have failed. She has been in detention for 13 of the last 19 years.
Secretary-General Ban has acknowledged that he is on a "very tough" mission.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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Saturday, 4 July 2009
VOA News
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