UN envoy says won't visit Myanmar if she can't see Suu Kyi

The United Nations special envoy to Myanmar said Monday she would only return to the Southeast Asian nation if she were allowed to see ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Noeleen Heyzer first visited Myanmar last month, after being appointed to her post in October 2021, and asked the country's leader and the chief of Myanmar military, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, for Suu Kyi to be allowed to return home from jail.

She said the purpose of the visit was to reduce conflict and suffering of its people and warned the ruling junta that "UN engagement does not in any way confer legitimacy" on the military government.

The UN has long demanded that their officials be allowed to meet with Suu Kyi, but the requests have been constantly blocked by the ruling generals.

What Heyzer said

Hezyer told a seminar in Singapore that the "reality is that there is no clear path out of the crisis and that there will be no easy solutions."

"If I ever visit Myanmar again, it will only be if I can meet with Daw Aung San Suu," Heyzer said. 'Daw' is an honorific used for older women in Burmese.

Hezyer added she was "very concerned" about Aung San Suu Kyi's health and well-being and condemned "her sentencing to hard labor.''

Heyzer noted there were continuing differences in "positioning among member states of the UN" over Myanmar and that "political solutions ultimately cannot be imposed from the outside."

Myanmar's military junta says it cannot allow Suu Kyi any visitors as long as legal proceedings continue. 

The junta's leader, General Min Aung Hlaing was also in Russia on Monday, on his second trip in less than two months.  Min Aung Hlaing has been banned from representing Myanmar at most international forums since leading the coup in February 2021.

Russia is an important source of military hardware for Myanmar, and was one of the first to support the junta in the wake of the coup.

Myanmar military's crackdown

Myanmar's ruling generals have come under  international pressure for launching a bloody crackdown on protesters and armed resistance groups since seizing power.

They have repeatedly handed long prison sentences to political prisoners since the coup.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to an additional three years on fresh charges of electoral fraud three days ago, already faces a combined jail term of more than 190 years. 

Critics say the charges against Suu Kyi are politically motivated and meant to keep her out of power.

Myanmar's military seized power in February 2021 after detaining Suu Kyi and other democratically elected leaders who had been in a power-sharing government with the military.

More than 2,000 people have been killed and another 17,000 arrested by security forces since the coup, according to local monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. 

Around 14.4 million people — roughly one-fourth of Myanmar's population — are estimated to have been displaced from their homes and to require humanitarian assistance.

rm/msh (Reuters, AP)