YANGON, June 23: A Japanese minister seeking the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi left Myanmar empty-handed on Monday, saying the military junta had given only vague assurances it would “rectify the situation”.

International anger with the generals has mounted since they detained the Nobel peace prize winner on May 30 after a clash between her supporters and a pro-junta group.

Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Tetsuro Yano said a meeting with Myanmar’s military intelligence chief Khun Nyunt, third in command in the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), had yielded few results.

“The purpose of my visit was not to deliver a review of the Japanese position towards Myanmar but I was hoping to break the ice of the stalemate,” Yano told reporters after leaving Yangon. “Our efforts to break the ice did not work out as I expected, which is due to the insufficient efforts made by the SPDC.”

Japan, the main aid donor to the impoverished country formerly known as Burma, said last week it would consider scaling back assistance to Myanmar if Suu Kyi is not released.

Yano said the junta had given him some assurances regarding Suu Kyi. “The Myanmar side has made it clear that they will make their utmost effort to rectify the situation.”

Yano said he had presented a letter from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Khin Nyunt urging the junta to free the pro-democracy icon, explain her detention to the international community, and allow her National League for Democracy (NLD) to operate freely in the country.

The Myanmar junta has said it is holding Suu Kyi for her own personal safety and has said it will free her at some point.

Former colonial power Britain says Suu Kyi is being held in the “notorious” Insein jail, the biggest prison in the British empire before 1945, on the northern outskirts of Yangon.

But Yano said Khin Nyunt had said this was not true, adding that the junta had not brought any charges against Suu Kyi.

Dissidents in exile and some Yangon-based diplomats say members of a pro-junta group set upon Suu Kyi’s convoy and local villagers on May 30 in a town in central Myanmar, killing at least 70. The Myanmar government says four people were killed.

The NLD swept to a landslide election victory in 1990 but has been prevented from taking power by the military, which has ruled Myanmar in various guises since a 1962 coup.—Reuters