BANGKOK: Myanmar’s exiled human rights activists are losing patience with the woefully slow progress made in the more than a year’s dialogue between the military government and the political opposition, as well as a UN special envoy’s quest to nudge Yangon toward more democracy.

Despite these talks, the release of nearly 200 political prisoners, and yet another visit to Myanmar by UN envoy Razali Ismail that ended this week, there is little sign that the country’s strongmen are in the mood for political change.

“There are no clues to gauge the direction the talks are taking,” says Ye Hutt, a ranking member of the Bangkok-based Myanmar Lawyers’ Council, one of many groups formed by Burmese exiles living in neighbouring Thailand. “Everything is behind closed doors, and the rulers are tight-lipped,” he adds. The talks have been shrouded in secrecy since they began 14 months ago between the government and oppositionists led by the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. “There is a need for openness, like a statement from the government revealing its stand on this effort,” Ye Hutt says.

Soe Aung of the Bangkok-based National Council of the Union of Myanmar (NCUB) feels likewise about the on-going dialogue initiated by Razali Ismail, a former Malaysian diplomat. “The SPDC must show political will to speed up the talks,” he says, referring to the State Peace and Development Council as the government calls itself.

Right after his visit to Yangon, Razali was, always, reticent about the substance of the talks he had with members of the junta in Yangon Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

However, he was quoted as having told the media that he was hopeful about “the eventual outcome” of his mission, which is to push for human rights and democracy in a country that has been oppressed by the dictates of a military regime that came to power in 1988.

But Aung Zaw, editor of “Irrawaddy”, an independent magazine that covers Myanmar from the Thai city of Chiang Mai, does not share this optimism. “It is very unlikely that an agreement will be reached. I don’t share his views, nor do a lot of people inside Myanmar.”

“Razali’s understanding of Myanmar is also limited,” adds Aung Zaw, speaking Wednesday at an event marking the 10th anniversary of Suu Kyi receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Some activists say his harsh assessment, including the critique that the Yangon government is gaining political mileage from the talks, is not misplaced in the face of evidence filtering out of Myanmar.

While Yangon claims that it has permitted the NLD to reopen its offices in the towns, the reality reveals the limits on the freedom of association — members of the government’s intelligence wing have become a permanent fixture nearby, monitoring NLD activities, activists say. There are also discrepancies in Yangon’s assertion that it has freed close to 200 political prisoners, largely NLD activists, since January, the month Razali’s initiative became known.

“Most of them were freed because their sentences had expired,” asserts Htut, the Myanmar’s lawyer. “But they have not been so keen to free the other political prisoners, about 1,500 or more, some of the strongest NLD voices.” Still, some consider it an achievement that the dialogue in Myanmar has continued this long. The longer it keeps going, the harder it may be to end. Meantime, Myanmar's exileslike Soe Aung are clinging on to hope that the talks will prompt change: “We need to make this process irreversible.” —Dawn/InterPress Service.