YANGON, Nov 2: Myanmar’s junta cut Internet connections and axed the senior United Nations official here on Friday, clouding the atmosphere before a visit by the world body’s envoy over last month’s violent crackdown.
A day before Ibrahim Gambari’s arrival, Myanmar’s ruling generals announced on Friday that they would not renew the mandate of the UN’s top man in Yangon, a UN spokesman said.
Charles Petrie, the world body’s country chief, was summoned to the new capital Naypyidaw for a meeting with junta officials, said Aye Win, a UN information officer in Yangon.
“I can confirm that the government has expressed its intention not to continue his assignment,” Aye Win said.
The government’s decision will likely force Petrie, who arrived in Myanmar in 2003, to leave the country.
The junta is reportedly angry over a statement the UN made last month denouncing a “deteriorating humanitarian situation” in Myanmar.
The comments, made in a statement released Oct 24 by the UN’s country team, “did not reflect the real situation in Myanmar,” state media reported late on Friday,
In the aftermath of the junta’s bloody suppression of demonstrations in late September, Petrie also made several public remarks that were critical of Myanmar’s leaders.
The abrupt move will likely complicate Gambari’s already difficult mission and adds to the mixed signals put out by the junta over recent days.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon is “disappointed” by Myanmar’s decision to expel Petrie and has full confidence in him, his spokeswoman said.
Spokeswoman Michele Montas said Ban has instructed Gambari to raise the issue with the military regime and that Gambari would meet with Petrie, a French national, on his arrival in Yangon on Saturday.
The United States reacted angrily. “The United States is outraged that the Burmese junta would expel the UN human rights representative,” US national security council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, using Myanmar’s former name of Burma.
Optimism over the release of more people arrested during September’s wave of protests has been somewhat muted by a cut in Internet access on Friday in an apparent bid to limit the flow of information ahead of Gambari’s visit.
Another 46 people, mostly from democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, were released late Thursday, party spokesman Nyan Win said, bringing the total number of people freed during the past week to 165.
But the continuing detention of hundreds of others is likely to be high on Gambari’s agenda as he meets with the junta again on his second visit since the unrest broke out.
Gambari, who is expected to travel to Naypyidaw on Sunday, has been tasked with implementing a genuine dialogue between the military regime and the opposition, led by Aung San Suu Kyi.Gambari last visited Myanmar from Sept 29 to Oct 2, just days after security forces confronted protesters with batons, tear gas and bullets in the streets of the commercial capital Yangon.
His new mission “will have to bring substantive results,” UN chief Ban Ki-moon said earlier this week, adding that Gambari would press for “more democratic measures by the government.” But some observers are less sure that Gambari’s six-day visit will produce real progress, and see his invitation merely as a way for the junta, which has been in power since 1962, to ease international pressure on itself.
Others say Gambari alone cannot bring change to Myanmar, and that he must have stronger backing from the country’s neighbours if he is going to force the ruling generals to embrace real reform.
INTERNET: The junta’s grip on power was again evident on Friday when Myanmar’s Internet links were largely cut.Access to international websites has been restricted since Thursday morning, said an official from the state-owned Myanmar Teleport, who added that it was not known when full service would be restored.
Myanmar dissident websites and blogs have been particularly active in the lead-up to Gambari’s visit, condemning the junta for its suppression of demonstrators and urging the international community to ramp up pressure on the regime.
Dissident websites are also frequently the quickest means of relaying information from within the isolated country.
They were a key source of information on a march on Wednesday by Buddhist monks in Pakokku in central Myanmar, the first such demonstration since the September crackdown.—AFP
