The United Nations is Sending Its Adviser Back to the Myanmar Region

In a press release issued on Thursday, the Secretary-General of the United Nations announced that he will be sending Special Adviser Ibrahim Gambari back to the Myanmar region this weekend to consult with regional partners.

Gambari will go to Thailand on Monday, and will then go to Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China, and Japan. According to the press release, Gambari is travelling with "a view to returning to Myanmar shortly thereafter," a wording that gives the impression that the U.N. may not yet have been able to make arrangements and/or get permission for Gambari to reenter Myanmar on this trip.

Gambari returned from the region just a little more than a week ago, having traveled to Myanmar on behalf of the United Nations from September 29 to October 2. While there, he met with members of the military government and met twice with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the country's pro-democracy movement.

Gambari was not, however, allowed to meet with representatives of the monks or of the 88 Generation Students, a group important in organizing the current protests (the name refers to their origins in Myanmar's 1988 uprising). Many of the group's leaders have been arrested, including one who was arrested just this week on Wednesday afternoon. Others have been detained since August.

Myanmar was previously known as Burma, and some countries, organizations, and individuals still call it by its original name to show their disapproval of the name change made by the military government. The current round of protests began in April 2007, and by September, thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns, who are highly respected figures in the country, were leading large peaceful protests in the streets. The government responded violently, shooting at protestors, and there are reports that the government has committed other atrocities.

Sources:

Secretary-General Sends Special Adviser Back to Asia for Consultations on Myanmar, United Nations Department of Public Information, October 11, 2007