Mon Oct 1, 12:23 AM ET

YANGON - U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari was waiting to see Myanmar junta chief Than Shwe on Monday in pursuit of his mission to end a bloody crackdown against 45 years of military rule, diplomats said.

Theories varied widely on why Gambari, dispatched after the junta sent in the troops to end mass protests last week, had not met Than Shwe despite having talks with detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Than Shwe, 74 and frequently rumored to be in poor health, may be sick, playing hard to get, or even demonstrating his contempt for international opinion, diplomats said.

"We were all caught by surprise," one said after Gambari left the junta's new capital of Naypyidaw, 240 miles north of Yangon, on Sunday without meeting Than Shwe, whose government rarely heeds pressure from the outside.

Gambari then flew to Yangon to see Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under some form of detention, before returning to Naypyidaw, a half-finished capital city carved out of the jungle.

British ambassador to Myanmar Mark Canning said China was pushing hard for Gambari's mission to be as long and as far-reaching as possible, and the fact he had gone back Naypyidaw might be the seed of some sort of shuttle diplomacy.

"There's been an evolution in his program. The initial pitch was minimalist. It's got a bit better, and we want to see it get better still," Canning told Reuters.

"We want to see a genuine shuttling around start, and we want to see the establishment of some sort of mechanism which allows the two parties to get together on an on-going basis."

DETERMINED TO MEET JUNTA LEADER

The United Nations made clear on Sunday Gambari did not plan to leave Myanmar, where the junta has flooded major cities with soldiers and police and barricaded off central Yangon where mass protests were held, without seeing Than Shwe.

"He looks forward to meeting Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, before the conclusion of his mission," a U.N. statement said.

Diplomats said Gambari met Suu Kyi for more than an hour at a Yangon government guest house near the lakeside villa where she is confined without a telephone and requires official permission, granted rarely, to receive visitors.

Earlier, in Naypyidaw, Gambari held talks with acting Prime Minister Thein Sein, who ranks fourth in the junta hierarchy, Culture Minister Khin Aung Nyint and Information Minister Kyaw Hsan.

It was not known if he had made any progress towards ending the crackdown on the biggest anti-junta protests for nearly 20 years, in which hundreds of Buddhist monks have been held.

Security forces have snuffed out protests in Yangon by sealing off two pagodas at their heart and keeping away the monks who led them, raiding monasteries and hauling monks away in trucks or penning them up inside.

There were soldiers at most street corners and security men

searched bags and people for cameras. The Internet, through which thousands of images of the crackdown have reached the world, remained off line.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission said at least 700 monks and 500 other people had been arrested countrywide.

The protests began with small marches against fuel price rises in mid-August and intensified when soldiers fired over the heads of protesting monks, causing monasteries to mobilize.

The heavy-handed suppression even prompted criticism from China, the closest the junta has to an ally, and condemnation from the Association of South East Asian Nation, of which Myanmar is a member.

JAPANESE ENVOY

The generals habitually ignore outside pressure, but bowed to the international outcry to admit Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, at short notice.

The government has acknowledged that 10 people were killed on Wednesday, the first day of the crackdown, although Western governments say the real toll is almost certainly higher.

A Japanese video journalist, Kenji Nagai, 50, was shot dead when troops opened fire on a crowd of chanting protesters and a Japanese envoy has arrived to ensure a full investigation into his death.

Footage appeared to show a soldier shooting him at point-blank range as security forces cleared protesters from central Yangon.

Myanmar's state-run media have proclaimed the restoration of peace and stability after security forces handled the protests "with care, using the least possible force."

The junta showed no signs on Monday that it was in a mood to make concessions to the opposition.

"Skyful of liars attempting to destroy the nation," ran one headline in state-run newspapers which also warned people not to believe anything reported on Burmese-language broadcasts on foreign radio stations.

"Beware, don't be bought," they said.

Mon Oct 1, 12:14 AM ET

YANGON - UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari has returned to Myanmar's capital in hopes of meeting reclusive junta chief Than Shwe to broker an end to a crackdown on dissent, an official said Monday.

Gambari met with Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi for more than an hour on Sunday before flying to the administrative capital Naypyidaw in central Myanmar, a UN official said.

He also visited the remote city on Saturday for talks with senior leaders to convey worldwide outrage over the violence used to put down the biggest anti-government protests seen in nearly 20 years.

Gambari was dispatched by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to intervene after the regime unleashed a military campaign to stop anti-government demonstrations several days ago, leaving at least 13 dead and hundreds arrested.

The four-day crackdown, which saw live rounds, baton charges and tear gas used against monks, protesters and civilians alike, succeeded in largely stopping the demonstrations.

In Yangon, residents on Monday were trying to get their lives back on track despite heavy security around the city.

Most schools and shops reopened for the first time since the crackdown began on Wednesday, as commuter buses returned to streets that had been blocked by barbed wire and armed soldiers.

Security forces also began allowing Buddhist faithful to enter the sacred Shwedagon and Sule pagodas, two key rallying points for the protests which had been completely sealed off for the last five days.

The military, which has ruled Myanmar with an iron fist for 45 years, is under enormous international pressure after scenes of violence shocked the world.

In addition to Gambari's visit, Japan's Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka also arrived in Yangon on Sunday to probe the killing of a Japanese journalist by troops during a pro-democracy protest Thursday.

The body of video journalist Kenji Nagai bore signs that he was shot at point-blank range and died almost instantly, according to his employer, who saw his remains in hospital.

Japan is one of Myanmar's leading donors, and Yabunaka was expected to demand to meet top junta officials in Naypyidaw as well as with Aung San Suu Kyi.

Although the 62-year-old democracy leader has been effectively silenced by the regime, she has again captured the international spotlight amid the pro-democracy protests.

In dramatic scenes a week ago, the opposition leader stepped out of her home in tears to greet Buddhist monks who marched past the house where she has been confined for most of the past 18 years.

The protests first erupted in August after a massive hike in fuel prices, but escalated two weeks ago with the emergence of the Buddhist monks on the front line and drew up to 100,000 people onto the streets last week.

Sun Sep 30, 11:13 PM ET

YANGON, Myanmar - A U.N. envoy was unable to meet with Myanmar's top two junta leaders in his effort to persuade them to ease a violent crackdown on anti-government protesters, but was allowed a highly orchestrated session Sunday with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The military government, meanwhile, flooded the main city of Yangon with troops, swelling their numbers to about 20,000 by Sunday and ensuring that almost all demonstrators would remain off the streets, a diplomat said.

Scores of people also were arrested overnight, further weakening the flagging uprising against 45 years of military dictatorship. The protests began Aug. 19 when the government sharply raised fuel prices, then mushroomed into the junta's largest challenge in decades when Myanmar's revered monks took a leading role.

One protest was reported Sunday in the western state of Rakhine where more than 800 people marched in the town of Taunggok, shouting "Release all political prisoners!" Police, soldiers and junta supporters blocked the road, forcing them to disperse, a local resident said.

Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s special envoy to Myanmar, was sent to the country to try to persuade the notoriously unyielding military junta to halt its crackdown. Soldiers have shot and killed protesters, ransacked Buddhist monasteries, beaten monks and dissidents and arrested an estimated 1,000 people in the last week alone.

But it was not clear what, if anything, Gambari could accomplish. The junta has rebuffed scores of previous U.N. attempts at promoting democracy and Gambari himself spoke in person to Suu Kyi nearly a year ago with nothing to show for it.

Gambari began Sunday by meeting with the acting prime minister, the deputy foreign minister and the ministers of information and culture in Myanmar's new bunker-like capital of Naypyitaw, 240 miles north of Yangon. The meeting, however, did not include the junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, or his deputy, Gen. Maung Aye, the two key figures whom Gambari had been pushing to speak with before his arrival.

He was then unexpectedly flown back to the main city of Yangon and whisked to the State Guest House. Suu Kyi was briefly freed from house detention and brought over to speak with him for more than an hour, according to U.N. officials.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace prize winner who has come to symbolize the struggle for democracy in Myanmar, has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest.

Gambari flew back to remote Naypyitaw late Sunday in hopes of a possible third meeting on Monday, an Asian diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.N. officials would not comment on speculation that he was carrying a letter from Suu Kyi to the junta but issued a statement that Gambari still hoped to speak with the junta's top leaders before leaving Myanmar.

The junta did not comment on Sunday's talks.

"I view this is very positive," said a second Asian diplomat who requested anonymity, citing protocol. "Hopefully, the shuttle diplomacy will bring some positive solutions to the present crisis as to the process of national reconciliation."

Suu Kyi's own party was not as optimistic. National League for Democracy secretary U Lwin told Radio Free Asia that he expects little progress from the talks because he sees Gambari as little more than a "facilitator" who can bring messages back and forth but has no authority to reach a lasting agreement.

Many see China, Myanmar's biggest trading partner, as the most likely outside catalyst. But China, India and Russia, who have been competing for Myanmar's bountiful oil and gas resources, do not seem prepared to go beyond words in dealing with the junta.

Japan, Myanmar's largest aid donor, said it is mulling sanctions or other actions to protest the junta's crackdown, which left a Japanese journalist dead, chief Cabinet spokesman Nobutaka Machimura said Monday.

Britain's ambassador Mark Canning said Gambari should stay in Myanmar "long enough to get under way a genuine process of national reconciliation."

"He should be given as much time as that takes. That will require access to senior levels of government as well as a range of political actors," Canning told The Associated Press.

The protests drew international attention after thousands of Buddhist monks joined people in venting anger at decades of brutal military rule. Some 70,000 people took to the streets before the protests were crushed Wednesday and Thursday when government troops opened fire into the crowds and raided monasteries to beat and arrest monks.

The government says 10 people were killed in last week's violence but independent sources say the number is far higher.

Truckloads of armed soldiers on Sunday patrolled downtown Yangon near recent protest sites and along the city's major streets. A nearby public market and a Catholic church were also teeming with soldiers.

The atmosphere in the city was intimidating but not always menacing. One witness said soldiers sat inside trucks and on sidewalks chatting, munched snacks or walked around looking bored.

Still, a video shot Sunday by a dissident group, the Democratic Voice of Burma, showed a monk, covered in bruises, floating face down in a Yangon river. It was not clear how long the body had been there.

People suspected of organizing this week's rallies continue to be arrested, a third Asian diplomat said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. The diplomat estimated the total number of arrests could be as high as 1,000, including several prominent members of the NLD. Myanmar's official press Monday said 11 people, including five young university students, were arrested for taking parts in two separate demonstrations in downtown Yangon Saturday.

Those joined an estimated 1,100 other political detainees already languishing in Myanmar's jails.

On Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI joined world leaders in expressing serious concern about the situation in Myanmar. About 1 percent of the country's 54 million people are Catholics.

"I am following with great trepidation the very serious events," the pontiff said during an appearance at his summer residence near Rome. "I want to express my spiritual closeness to the dear population in this moment of the very painful trial it is going through."

The Catholic Church has ordered its clergy not to take part in demonstrations or political activities in Myanmar. Worshippers at Yangon's Catholic churches Sunday read posted bulletins from its hierarchy stating that priests, brothers and nuns were not to become involved in the demonstrations, but that lay Catholics could act as they saw fit.

Sun Sep 30, 10:30 PM ET

MAE LA REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand - In this refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border, huts are so tightly packed that chickens leap with ease between the thatched mud-and-leaf roofs.

The tiny homes can shelter up to three families of refugees who have fled fighting between Myanmar's army and ethnic rebel militias, and who face little hope of ever returning home or even leaving the crammed Mae La Camp.

Dirt roads teeming with ragged children are barely wide enough for the off-road trucks that ferry humanitarian aid through the settlement, which is home to nearly 50,000 people, mostly from Myanmar's Karen ethnic minority.

Thailand's Ministry of Interior, which runs the camps, has accepted few new refugees here for at least a year, but as Myanmar's junta cracks down on protests in Yangon, there are fears that a fresh wave of asylum-seekers could flood the border area.

"The people inside Burma, if they come inside the camp, we have to welcome them," Lin Leh Soe, who works with the Karen Women's Organisation, said, using Myanmar's former name.

Refugees from Myanmar began coming to Thailand in 1984 as the junta advanced into Karen state, and now there are about 155,000 refugees crowded in nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented a catalogue of abuses by Myanmar's military against civilians in Karen state, including forced labour, murder and the destruction of crops.

"They burn down the rice and they burn down the fields," said Mahn Shah, a member of the Karen National Union, an armed group battling the junta.

"Civilians lose their food, their property, they can't stay any longer, so they come to the border."

Naw Palay Wak spent a month traversing mountains with her parents and brothers to reach Thailand after troops from the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as Myanmar's junta is known, came to her village two years ago.

"When the SPDC military came to my village, if they saw women, they raped them, and they called the people in the village to be porters," she told AFP. "My mother was raped. We could not stay in my village."

The 20-year-old was in her first year studying law at Taungoo University when her family fled, but now her main task is taking care of her younger siblings.

"I did not want to throw my education away," she says. "I would like to improve my life, but I can't go to school."

Many of the social ills in Mae La such as alcoholism, domestic violence and drug abuse stem from the hopelessness that afflicts the refugees, said Sally Thompson, of the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which provides aid to camp.

"They don't have a choice, they are not able to decide what they do. At the moment they are not allowed to work, so they leave school, and then what do they do? They've got no hope, no opportunity," she told AFP by phone.

Thompson estimates that about 500 to 600 asylum seekers arrive from Myanmar each month.

Prospects for the refugees to return home remain bleak, she said, and one solution would be for the Thai government to allow them to work legally in the kingdom, a scenario currently being hammered out.

Since 2005, about 16,250 refugees have also been resettled abroad, mostly in the United States, thus all but giving up hope of ever returning to Myanmar.

People working in the camps say it is difficult to predict if the crackdown in Yangon will send a new wave across the border, and are divided over the ability to house any new arrivals.

"If there was an influx, the Thai government would probably accommodate them," says Eldon Hager, the resettlement officer for the United Nation's refugee agency office in Mae Sot.

Others are not optimistic about the government taking so kindly to a flood of persecuted Myanmar nationals, especially when Mae La already has up to 6,000 unregistered residents who officially have no access to aid.

"That's been the policy of the MoI (Ministry of Interior) -- starve the new arrivals out," says one aid worker who asked not to be named.

Security at the camp has been tightened since the Myanmar junta unleashed bullets and tear gas last week, killing at least 13 on the streets of Yangon.

A small protest was rumoured to have broken out at the camp football field, while foreign missionaries are afraid to leave their schools inside the camp in case they will not be able to get back in through the military check-points.

And while many may be making treacherous journeys to try and reach Thailand, those who live in Mae La think about escaping.

After stoically describing her mother's rape and her flight from Myanmar, Naw Palay Wak finally breaks down in tears when speaking about her future.

She has applied for resettlement in the United States and Australia, but has heard nothing.

"I only want to get the education that I can't get now," she says.

Sun Sep 30, 6:22 PM ET

MAE SOT, Thailand - The rows of children transfixed by cartoons in a wooden shelter near the Thai-Myanmar border are probably too young to understand why they are all now wearing matching rust-red clothes.

On the wall is a map of their homeland Myanmar, where the ruling junta this week cracked down on anti-government protests and killed at least three Buddhist monks, whose deep red robes the kids are unconsciously honouring.

The four and five-year-olds are probably also too young to fully understand why their parents left their impoverished country, formerly known as Burma, or what forced their mothers and fathers to finally abandon them in Thailand.

"A lot of Burmese people are working here," said Thant Zin Kyaw, deputy director of local assistance group Social Action for Women (SAW), which runs the safehouse for abandoned children.

"They come here for different reasons. Some are facing serious crisis in Burma like forced labour, economic crisis, child labour."

Resource-rich Myanmar was once one of the most economically promising countries in Southeast Asia, but 45 years of military rule have run infrastructure into the ground.

Myanmar is now one of the world's poorest countries with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) well below that of nearby Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh. UN figures show the junta spends just 0.5 percent of GDP on health.

Seeking a better life for their families, many people from Myanmar illegally cross the porous border to Thailand, but once here they lack access to all social services, and are open to exploitation by employers.

Migrant workers may give up their children because the parents are HIV positive or the child is disabled and they cannot afford to look after them.

Some are not allowed to take the time off work to look after an infant, said Thant Zin Kyaw, as toddlers dressed by the staff in red ambled around a playhouse nearby.

Four-year-old Su Su Aung, who has cerebral palsy, will soon be joining the 32 abandoned children who are living at SAW's safehouse, even though it is already over its capacity of 25.

Currently he lies alone under a mosquito net on the floor of the Mae Tao Clinic, one of the few medical centres in Mae Sot where migrant workers and people coming across from Myanmar can get free health care.

Su Su Aung's parents crossed the border a few months ago and came to the clinic. His mother was treated for malaria, but died when she returned home.

His father soon brought Su Su Aung back and he became one of 10 abandoned children the clinic has treated since 2006. Staff say the man was probably unable to care for a disabled child alone.

Just a few feet away from Su Su Aung lies another infant, now four months old. She was abandoned at the clinic by her migrant worker parents when she was just 13 days old.

"People have no money to look after another child ... Most of the time, (the parents) wait for the staff to be busy, and they run away," said Eh Moolah, a senior medic in Mae Tao Clinic's reproductive health department.

"They say 'I need to go to the toilet, take my baby', and then they run."

The clinic's founder Cynthia Maung says the decision to abandon a baby is a final act of desperation that stems from a lack of access to services as basic as family planning advice.

Humanitarian organisations estimate that there are up to two million illegal Myanmar migrants working all over Thailand.

Although there are humanitarian organisations and clinics such as Mae Tao, which is funded by foreign donors, to help the migrant workers, many are unaware of their services, and fall through the cracks.

Some first-time migrant mothers are so desperate to get help delivering their babies that they will commit a small crime to go to Thai prison, where they receive basic health care, Cynthia Maung tells AFP.

Mae Tao Clinic also treats many migrant and Myanmar women who suffer side effects after illegal abortions, which many undergo because they simply cannot afford to feed another mouth.

Economic ills and the soaring costs of living were key reasons for recent anti-junta rallies in Yangon, and people often risk an illegal border crossing because they are too poor to afford even the paltry health care on offer in Myanmar.

It was poverty that forced San Thaw Dar, now 17, to come from Myanmar's Karen State to Thailand with her mother when she was 11 years old.

She was immediately put to work as a domestic helper, but accidently smashed a doll belonging to her employers, who demanded 5,000 baht (142 dollars). Instead of paying the fee, her mother dropped San Thaw Dar off at the SAW safehouse and left.

Surprisingly, San Thaw Dar does not feel any bitterness towards her mother, but thinks about her homeland, especially as she is not a legal Thai citizen.

"I would like to go back to Myanmar, but it depends on the situation," she said, as the younger residents scrambled over her, as yet in happy ignorance of life as a stateless person.

Sun Sep 30, 2:49 PM ET

A look at the insular military leadership behind the recent crackdown in Myanmar:


HOW DID THEY COME TO POWER?

The State Peace and Development Council, as Myanmar's ruling junta is formally known, replaced another dictatorship in 1988 after suppressing a pro-democracy uprising.

WHO ARE THEY?

There are 12 members on the council, but first among equals is Senior Gen. Than Shwe, 74, an uncompromising hard-liner. No. 2 is Deputy Senior Gen. Maung Aye, 69, known for his ruthless suppression of Myanmar's ethnic rebels.

HOW DO THEY STAY IN POWER?

Myanmar has a 400,000-man military, one of the largest in Asia. Soldiers live in isolated barracks, secluded from civilian life; their families are provided with housing as well.

WHERE DO THEY GET REVENUES?

Than Shwe's government has opened up the country to foreign investment. Myanmar is rich in natural resources, including potentially vast oil and gas reserves.

WHO ARE THEIR ALLIES?

China is the regime's main ally as well as its main trading partner. Both China and India curry favor with the junta because of Myanmar's strategic location on the Indian Ocean and its oil and natural gas resources.

WHO ARE THEIR CRITICS?

The United States, the European Union and other Western nations have slapped economic sanctions on the regime and urged it to embrace a peaceful, democratic transition. Rights groups have sharply criticized its human rights record.

Sun Sep 30, 2:06 PM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand - Hunkered down in their war rooms hundreds of miles from mass protests, the aging, hard-line generals in Myanmar are known as a suspicious lot who view the West with disdain and depend on browbeaten advisers and astrologers to guide them.

Much like Myanmar's former kings, they see themselves as the only ones capable of ruling, and their army as the only force that can transform the country into a modern state.

Anyone questioning their 45 years of supremacy, whether a lone protester or tens of thousands on the streets of Yangon, is simply seen as a threat and dealt with the same brute force.

"They are moving to put down what they consider a threat to the nation," said Mary Callahan, a Myanmar expert at the University of Washington. "I think these senior officers really believe they have done right by their country and the protesters are threatening the stability of the country and threatening what they consider the progress they brought."

The demonstrations are the stiffest challenge to the ruling junta in two decades, a crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike then expanded dramatically about two weeks ago when Buddhist monks joined the protests.

Since Wednesday, soldiers and riot police have clubbed, shot and detained demonstrators in Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon, the largest city in what used to be called Burma. At least 10 people were killed, dozens injured and hundreds detained, including Buddhist monks whose monasteries were shot up and destroyed in overnight raids by security forces.

The heavy-handed response, analysts said, was not surprising given the junta's long history of snuffing out all dissent since the country's independence in 1948. For decades, they have also waged a brutal war against ethnic groups in which soldiers have razed villages, raped women and killed innocent civilians — atrocities that continue to this day.

Since the 1980s, they have detained and tortured thousands of political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader who has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years.

When hundreds of thousands of citizens took to the streets peacefully in 1988, the military opened fire, killing as many as 3,000.

The generals' problem, said David Mathieson, a consultant with Human Rights Watch in Thailand, is that "They don't listen to their own population. They honestly think they are the only ones capable of doing this."

Senior Gen. Than Shwe, who launched his military career fighting ethnic insurgencies, embodies the regime he heads. In the top leadership post since 1992, he is regularly on the front pages of state media in his drab military uniform.

"He commands loyalty. He seems like the archetypal soldier," said Razali Ismail, a former U.N. special envoy to Myanmar who has met Than Shwe numerous times. "He believes himself to be very much a patriot, a nationalist. He speaks often about the sacrifices that he and his generation and his soldiers have made."

Described by Western diplomats who have met him as humorless, stiff and xenophobic, Than Shwe rarely says anything in public except at the annual Armed Forces Day — an ostentatious display featuring as many as 15,000 troops and the latest military hardware from China, India and Russia.

This year, the 74-year-old general used the occasion to warn that the nation still faces danger from "powerful countries" that are trying to weaken the military.

"They will try to sow the seeds of discord and dissension not only among national races but also within each particular ethnic group in various spheres such as religion, ideologies, social classes," he said.

In recent years, as his health has declined, Than Shwe's behavior has become increasingly bizarre, diplomats and analyst said. Almost overnight, he moved the capital in 2005 to an isolated jungle outpost 250 miles north of Yangon and named it Naypyitaw or "Royal City."

To mark his first Armed Forces Day there, he built gigantic statues of former Burmese kings, a Western diplomat recalled, speaking on condition of anonymity. "He has regal pretensions."

These days, Thang Shwe's declining health has forced him to remain mostly in Naypyitaw where he depends on cowed junior officers and even his astrologer for guidance, Myanmar analyst Larry Jagan and others said.

One of his few trips outside the capital was to his daughter's wedding last year in Yangon, which angered many Burmese because it cost $300,000 and the couple received wedding gifts worth $50 million, according to Irrawaddy, a respected online magazine covering Burmese affairs.

A video of the wedding can be found on YouTube.

The junta claims credit for modernizing Myanmar. It has doubled the size of the army to 400,000 and opened the isolated, impoverished country of 54 million people to foreign investment. It also ended fighting with several ethnic groups and built scores of new roads, bridges, pagodas and schools.

But its aggressive push to develop the country was not matched by progress in the political arena. Fearful of another 1988 uprising, it responded to its loss of the 1990 elections by refusing to hand over power and imprisoning Suu Kyi.

History suggests the military will stay united, despite unconfirmed rumors in Yangon of a few soldiers refusing to fire on crowds last week or turning on one another. Soldiers have plenty of incentives to remain loyal — they and their families get better food, housing, health care and other benefits than ordinary Burmese.

"The military leadership may have disagreements and personality conflicts but those have never erupted into anything politically significant because they realized they are all better off sticking together," Callahan said.

Sun Sep 30, 7:19 AM ET

OSLO - Using secret material smuggled out of Myanmar, the Oslo-based Democratic Voice of Burma's radio and TV stations are a key source of information for those inside and outside the country on the government's crackdown on protesters.

As demonstrators clash with troops in a nation with no independent media, exiled journalists and workers broadcasting from a sleek office in the Norwegian capital hope their work will help end military rule in their homeland.

Undercover local journalists secretly film and record events, risking arrest and torture to send footage and facts to the station. Material is smuggled out by airline passengers or diplomats, or sent by e-mail.

As protests grew last week, the station found itself providing film to the world's broadcasters largely unable to get their own material from inside Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"Our station is a key factor in making a change," Khin Maung Win, a 42-year-old veteran of 1988 protests which ended in bloodshed with a military crackdown, told Reuters.

"In 1988, Burma was a completely closed country. There was no media coverage. Now everyone is watching."

With about a dozen from its staff of 100 in Oslo, the newsroom is alive with discussion about events half a world away. "Never report rumors" says a sign on the wall alongside a painting of democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Democratic Voice of Burma broadcasts by shortwave radio. It also beams satellite television for several hours a day.

Funded by the governments of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the United States and the Netherlands, the broadcaster has increased its output and most staff have almost doubled their hours since protests led by Buddhist monks began earlier this month.

TUNING IN

Myanmar's government last week blocked Internet access but people in Myanmar continued to talk to the station by mobile phone, Win said.

Before the protests, the station estimated its radio programs reached about 13 million of Myanmar's 56 million people and its satellite television about half of the estimated 10 million viewers in the country.

"Nowadays, we think everyone is tuning in," he said. "People are watching and listening publicly. People are proud when their voices are heard on the air -- they would never have that chance with state media."

Mobile and satellite phone calls are its main expense, Win said, adding that last week alone the station spent its usual annual total of nearly $100,000 on communications. Governments that support the radio have pledged more funds.

Working for the station is a crime in Myanmar, and the staff worry about the safety of their workers and family members. Some staff in Oslo avoid communication with families back home for fear of endangering them.

The broadcaster also sees a role for itself in a free Myanmar. "In the past we were effectively propaganda for the pro-democracy movement," Win said. "Now, we try to be objective so we can become the independent media of a free Burma."

There is cause for optimism, Win says. The station reported that some army units refused to fire on protesters or monks -- signs of a potential split in the military, he said.

He said a transition would have to be gradual and he hoped a U.N. envoy visiting the country would be able to persuade the military rulers to allow a step-by-step transfer of power.

A sudden collapse of central rule could be disastrous, Win said. "There are so many ethnic groups in the country," he said. "There are many people with weapons but no education. It could become another Yugoslavia... or another Iraq."

Sun Sep 30, 5:37 AM ET

YANGON - UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari met Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Sunday in the main city Yangon after he earlier held talks with junta leaders, a security official said.

"They held a meeting of about one hour and 15 minutes," the source told AFP after Gambari met the democracy icon at a government guest house in the city formerly called Rangoon, their first meeting since November 2006.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the 62-year-old head of the opposition National League for Democracy and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been under house arrest in Yangon for most of the past 18 years.

Gambari, a Nigerian-born diplomat, arrived in Yangon earlier Sunday after meetings in the secluded capital Naypyidaw, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Yangon, with junta leaders, diplomats said.

Gambari arrived in Naypyidaw on Saturday for talks, in which he was expected to convey international outrage over the regime's violent crackdown on mass demonstrations that erupted two weeks ago.

"Gambari was in Naypyidaw yesterday where he met junta leaders, including reportedly Senior General Than Shwe," a Western diplomat in Yangon told AFP, referring to the junta's number one figure.

He said there was no information yet as to the content of their talks.

Sun Sep 30, 1:43 AM ET

TOKYO - Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Mitoji Yabunaka left for Myanmar Sunday to probe the killing of a Japanese journalist by troops during pro-democracy protests in Yangon.

The body of video journalist Kenji Nagai bore signs that he was shot at point-blank range and died almost instantly, according to his employer who saw his remains in hospital.

Japan, one of Myanmar's leading donors, will demand the military regime punish those responsible for the killing if it was found to be deliberate, Japanese media reported on Saturday.

Yabunaka was seeking to meet with Foreign Minister Nyan Win, Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo and other Myanmar leaders during his three-day visit to Yangon, the foreign ministry said.

"I will seek a full account of the incident and demand safety guarantees for Japanese nationals," Yabunaka told reporters at Tokyo's Narita airport. "I want to tell them to hold a dialogue with pro-democracy forces and pave the way for democracy."

Tokyo is considering such actions as recalling its ambassador and reducing or suspending technical assistance to the country, Kyodo News said.

Nagai, 50, covered trouble spots around the world for the Tokyo-based video news service APF News. He was he first foreigner killed in Myanmar's bloody crackdown on anti-government protests.

APF News president Toru Yamaji, 46, met on Saturday with a doctor who carried out a post mortem examination on the journalist, according to the company.

"Mr. Nagai was shot point-blank at about one metre (three feet) range and he was in an instant-death situation," Yamaji quoted the doctor as telling him, according to APF News staff in Tokyo.

"He was presumed to have been struck by a single bullet which entered his body from the left side of his back and pierced through the right chest breaking a few ribs," he said.

"I came fact to face with Mr. Nagai and the reality of his death sank in again. I stared into his face for some time before telling him, 'Let's call it a day and come home together,'" Yamaji was quoted as saying.

Japan in 2003 suspended low-interest loans for major projects, such as infrastructure, to protest against the continued detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

But Japan says aid continues for emergencies and humanitarian purposes.

Sun Sep 30, 1:28 AM ET

BANGKOK - Despite global outrage over Myanmar's bloody crackdown on dissent, multinational firms are still vying for the country's rich natural resources, throwing an economic lifeline to the military regime.

US energy giant Chevron, French oil group Total and China's top oil producer China National Petroleum Corporation are among companies giving much-needed income to Myanmar, defying activists' calls to pull out.

"All these profits go to the regime. These companies don't care about human rights and what is going on in Yangon," said Debbie Stothard, a coordinator of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Myanmar, a regional pro-democracy body.

Myanmar's junta has been condemned worldwide for launching an offensive against protesters in its main city Yangon, killing at least 13 people, including a Japanese journalist, and jailing hundreds more.

US President George W. Bush last week unveiled new sanctions on the country's ruling generals in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also urged his country's businesses, including Total, to freeze their investments in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Total has a 31 percent stake in Myanmar's major Yadana project, which would carry gas from fields in the Andaman Sea to power plants in Thailand.

The project is jointly run by the state-run Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, Thailand's top oil exploration firm PTTEP, and US firm Unocal, which has been bought by Chevron. Chevron owns a 28-percent stake in the Yadana fields.

Japan's Nippon Oil Corp., South Korean's Daewoo International, Malaysia's state-run energy firm Petronas, as well as two Indian power giants, Gail India and Oil and Natural Gas Corp., are also jockeying for billion-dollar contracts.

Nippon Oil said there would be no change in its Myanmar operations following the bloody crackdown on demonstrations, which had steadily grown since August 19 following a massive hike in fuel prices for ordinary people.

"We see the political situation and energy business as separate matters," said a company spokesman in Tokyo. He declined to say how much Nippon Oil has invested in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

A spokesman for Daewoo, which recently discovered record gas reserves in Myanmar, declined to comment on the clampdown but said: "If South Korea decided to impose sanctions against Myanmar, we would have counterplans for that."

Apart from natural gas, global companies are also seeking Myanmar's teak, forest products, jade, gems, beans and textiles.

"China and Thailand are the major buyers of teak and jade. They just want short-term business interests. They don't care about the lives of Burmese people," said Aung Thu Nyein, a Thai-based Myanmar analyst.

Neighbouring Thailand is the biggest buyer of Myanmar's exports, and Thai firms have also heavily invested in the agriculture and tourism sectors in the military-run country.

Another big neighbour, India, is also flexing its economic muscle. Major state-run infrastructure firm RITES has committed to spending 130 million dollars to develop a port in Sittwe, 560 kilometres (350 miles) west of Yangon.

Indian telecom firm TCIL and pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila are among Indian firms operating in Myanmar.

Russia, which has called the crackdown an "internal matter," also announced in May it would help build a nuclear research centre in Myanmar.

Aung Thu Nyein praised Bush's tough measures against the junta and urged the world to follow the lead of the United States, a vocal critic of Myanmar, in an effort to pressure the military government.

"The world must be united in terms of imposing sanctions against Burma. Otherwise, sanctions remain useless against the junta," he said.

The US has imposed sanctions due to Myanmar's human rights abuses, including the detention of 62-year-old pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest in Yangon.

In the wake of Myanmar's crackdown, the US government ordered a freeze on the assets of junta leader General Than Shwe and 13 other senior officials.

Sun Sep 30, 1:24 AM ET

RYE, N.H. - Sen. John McCain said Saturday that the United States and Myanmar's neighbors need to be tougher on the military junta responsible for this week's brutal crackdown on demonstrators.

The Republican presidential hopeful said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations should be told to "kick these guys out."

"We should be putting every sanction on them that we can think of," said McCain. "We should have every place in the world talking about how this kind of thing doesn't work anymore."

McCain, speaking outside a supporter's oceanfront home, described his meeting 10 years ago with Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been under house arrest for years. He called her the most impressive person he has ever met and noted that she refused to leave Myanmar to see her dying husband in England because she would have been banned from returning.

"She is a woman that's so remarkable, it's hard for me to describe to you," he said.

McCain said later that he was not trying to conjure up the more than five years he spent as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

McCain does highlight his war-hero biography in new ads being aired in New Hampshire that show him as a wounded Navy pilot answering questions from his prison bed and returning to the United States from Vietnam.

Such heavy advertising would not have been possible a few months ago, before McCain's broke campaign underwent major political, financial and organizational upheaval. A day before the end of the third financial quarter, McCain said he is satisfied with his fundraising levels.

The demonstrations in Myanmar, also known as Burma, began last month, sparked by anger over massive fuel price hikes. The government admits to 10 deaths in the crackdown that began Wednesday, though opposition groups say up to 200 people were killed.

President Bush has imposed sanctions on key leaders in the Myanmar regime. The Southeast Asian organization to which McCain referred issued its sharpest-ever condemnation of the regime, calling the crackdown "repulsive."