Fri Oct 5, 11:07 AM ET

UNITED NATIONS - U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari warned Myanmar on Friday of potential serious international repercussions from the political crisis there and urged the ruling junta to release all political prisoners.

Gambari was reporting to the U.N. Security Council on a four-day visit he made to Myanmar sparked by concern over suppression of pro-democracy protests.

He said the international community was concerned about "continuing and disturbing reports of abuses being committed by security and non-uniformed elements, particularly at night during curfew, including raids on private homes, beatings, arbitrary arrests, and disappearances."

Gambari also said there were unconfirmed reports that the number of casualties was "much higher" than the dozen people reported killed by authorities.

He said the Myanmar government must recognize that what happened there "can have serious international repercussions." He said it was time for the Myanmar government to make "bold choices" and he urged it to meet as soon as possible with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Security Council dispatched Gambari to Myanmar in hopes of ending a crackdown involving soldiers shooting into crowds and mass arrests that have sparked international outrage.

China, which has a veto in the Security Council, has said the situation in Myanmar is an internal affair and it opposes action by the Security Council.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the Myanmar authorities' use of force on peaceful protesters was "abhorrent and unacceptable."

Addressing the Security Council just before Gambari's report, Ban called for "bold actions" by the military government toward democratization and respect for human rights.

Fri Oct 5, 9:30 AM ET

WASHINGTON - The White House rejected on Friday conditions set by Myanmar's military ruler for meeting detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the junta to talk to the opposition with no strings attached.

Expressing concern about a continuing government crackdown, the White House also called on the U.N. Security Council to send its envoy back to Myanmar as soon as possible to meet Suu Kyi and the junta to work toward a peaceful transition to democracy.

Senior General Than Shwe, who caused international outrage by sending in soldiers to crush peaceful monk-led demonstrations, was asking Suu Kyi to abandon the campaign for democracy that has kept her in detention for 12 of the last 18 years, her party's spokesman said.

Than Shwe, head of the latest junta in 45 unbroken years of military rule of the former Burma, set out his conditions for direct talks at a meeting with special U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Tuesday, state-run television said.

It said Suu Kyi must abandon "confrontation," give up "obstructive measures" and support for sanctions and "utter devastation," a phrase it did not explain.

Suu Kyi's party dismissed the junta's offer as surreal.

"We would hope that the leaders in Burma, the military junta, would not put conditions on a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi," White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.

"What you saw from the monks who were protesting, their very limited call was for dialogue, and that dialogue should be without conditions. We want to see a transformation towards more freedom and democracy in Burma," he added.

With Gambari reporting to the U.N. Security Council on Friday, Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said: "The United States urges the UN Security Council to send Mr. Gambari, at the earliest possible time, back to Burma."

"Reports from Burma that the Internet has been cut off and that innocent Burmese monks and others have been detained, continue to be causes for serious concern and we urge the permanent five members of the United Nations Security Council to take these matters seriously and to act," he said.

Fri Oct 5, 7:19 AM ET

YANGON, Myanmar - The top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar sat down for a rare meeting with a representative of the military government Friday, a day after the junta announced a conditional offer to meet with detained democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Acting Ambassador Shari Villarosa met with Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint in the remote jungle capital of Naypitaw, according to a senior embassy official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.

Villarosa has been a vocal critic of the junta's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters last week. She received word Thursday that she had been asked to meet with the military-led government, the State Department said in Washington. During her visit, she was expected to repeat the U.S. view that the regime must meet with democratic opposition groups and "stop the iron crackdown" on peaceful demonstrators, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington.

Hoping to deflect outrage over soldiers gunning down protesters, Myanmar's junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe announced that he was willing to talk with Suu Kyi, the democratic opposition leader — but only if she stops calling for international sanctions.

Than Shwe also insisted that Suu Kyi stop urging her countrymen to confront the military regime, state television and radio said in reporting on the conditions set by the junta leader during a meeting this week with a special U.N. envoy.

The surprise move appeared aimed at staving off economic sanctions, thereby keeping Myanmar's bountiful natural resources on world markets, while also pleasing giant neighbor China, which worries the unrest could cause problems for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Diplomats and opposition figures were skeptical that the offer was genuine but, nonetheless, expressed hope that the meeting with Suu Kyi — something she has requested for years — would materialize.

Many governments have urged stern U.N. Security Council action against Myanmar, but members China and Russia have ruled out any council action, saying the crisis does not threaten international peace and security.

"This issue does not belong to the Security Council," China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya said Thursday. "These problems still, we believe, are basically internal."

State media in Myanmar gave new figures Thursday for the number of people arrested during last week's bloody assault by troops. The reports said nearly 2,100 people had been detained, with almost 700 already released.

The government has said 10 people were killed when security forces broke up the mass demonstrations, but dissident groups put the death toll at up to 200 and say 6,000 people were detained, including thousands of Buddhist monks who were leading the protests.

Life in Yangon was slowly returning to normal but security remained tight in downtown areas where protests were quashed last week. A half dozen military trucks were stationed near the Sule Pagoda, a flash point of the unrest.

The typically busy area around the city's famed Shwedagon Pagoda was eerily quiet, with residents avoiding the area outside the temple where Buddhist monks were beaten by soldiers.

Philippine Ambassador Noel Cabrera described the mood in the country as "quite dark, uncertain and depressed," noting that Myanmar remained cut off from the Internet and strategically placed troops were on standby.

Reaction to Than Shwe's offer of talks was mixed.

Thein Lwin, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, scoffed at the general's conditions.

Suu Kyi "does not have confrontational attitude, nor does she encourage sanctions," he said. Asked if he was hopeful that she would accept the junta's terms for talks, he replied: "We'll have to wait and see."

Democracy activists living in exile in Thailand were also not very impressed by the offer.

"This is just PR ahead of the Security Council meeting," said Maung Maung, a member of a self-styled Myanmar government in exile in Bangkok.

"If they really want to talk, she needs to be released first so she has freedom of association and freedom of speech to engage in a dialogue," he told reporters.

Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her democracy campaign. Her party won elections in 1990 but the junta refused to accept the results.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The current junta came to power after routing a 1988 pro-democracy uprising in bloodshed that killed at least 3,000 people.

Fri Oct 5, 4:49 AM ET

YANGON - Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will consider positively a heavily conditioned offer to meet the junta leader, her party said Friday, as a US envoy headed to meet leaders of the isolated regime.

The ruling generals made the offers of dialogue as the United Nations readied to discuss the violent crackdown on the largest pro-democracy demonstrations in almost 20 years in the country formerly called Burma.

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest, is a living symbol of the pro-democracy movement that last week brought up to 100,000 people onto the streets of Yangon.

While the top general, Than Shwe, is known to despise her, Myanmar's state media late Thursday said he was willing to see the Nobel peace prize winner if she ends her support for sanctions against the regime.

Aung San Suu Kyi would consider the offer "in a positive light," said Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD). "It's up to Daw (Ms) Aung San Suu Kyi to decide," he said.

The regime extended the rare offer of talks as UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari prepared to brief the UN security council on his four-day trip this week to Myanmar, during which he met both the top general and the opposition leader.

The US chief of mission in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, was Friday due to pass on a "very clear message" in her talks with the generals to start "meaningful" dialogue with the opposition, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Villarosa -- whose government has spearheaded global protests against Myanmar -- was invited by the regime to its remote capital Naypyidaw but had received no word on whom she would meet, US officials said.

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose NLD won 1990 elections by a landslide but was never allowed to rule, continues to symbolise the nation's democratic aspirations.

Last week, she was briefly allowed to greet some of the country's revered Buddhist monks before the junta came down hard on the protesters, killing at least 13 people and detaining more than 2,000, according to state media.

The rallies had begun with small-scale protests after a massive mid-August hike in fuel prices but swelled into the biggest threat to the hardline regime since student-led demonstrations in 1988, which were put down in a massacre.

Although the security presence on Yangon's streets has eased, soldiers continue to enforce a curfew and raid activists' home overnight, residents say. Many Yangon monasteries are empty, leaving neighbours to wonder if the monks have been arrested, injured or worse.

Amid this week's flurry of international diplomacy, Gambari was due to brief the UN Security Council later Friday on his four-day mission to Myanmar, but China signalled early that it would block efforts to punish Myanmar.

China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya, whose country, along with India, has close ties to Myanmar, said Thursday that Beijing still regarded the crisis there as an internal matter and rejected the idea of punitive measures.

"No internationally imposed solution can help the situation," Wang said.

India, which has been under fire for its low-key reaction, called for Aung San Suu Kyi's release, saying she can "contribute to the emergence of Myanmar as a democratic country."

Thailand's Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont and Singapore's Premier Lee Hsien Loong agreed to send some foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to Myanmar next month, a Thai government statement said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also said he would soon travel to the Southeast Asia region to press for change, while Brazil unveiled plans to send a team of observers.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, called on Myanmar to allow rights monitors to enter the country, pointing to "pretty alarming" signs of abuses.

Fri Oct 5, 4:36 AM ET

NEW DELHI - India, under fire for its low-key reaction to the violent suppression of pro-democracy protests in Myanmar, has called for Aung San Suu Kyi to be freed, but is not abandoning the authoritarian regime.

India issued the call concerning the opposition leader at a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the situation in Myanmar, held in Geneva on Tuesday, according to an official statement released Thursday night.

"The government of India believes that the release of Aung San Suu Kyi would be helpful in terms of the process of democratisation and that she can contribute to the emergence of Myanmar as a democratic country," said Swashpawan Singh, India's envoy to the council.

It was the first time since the early 1990s that India has publicly sought the release of the 62-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been under house arrest in Yangon for more than a decade.

Singh in his statement described Myanmar as a "close and friendly neighbour" with whom India shares "links of geography, culture, history and religion."

But he said the recent crackdown led by highly respected Buddhist monks, in which at least 13 people were killed, was a "matter of concern" for New Delhi.

However, he objected to the tough language in the Human Rights Council's resolution, which he said could hamper efforts to engage "the authorities in Myanmar in a constructive manner to facilitate a peaceful outcome."

India, which rolled out the red carpet for military strongman Than Shwe in a 2004 visit, was until the mid-1990s a staunch supporter of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

New Delhi kept the military junta at arm's length after the 1988 crackdown on democracy protests, but changed tack when it decided its security interests in the northeast were in jeopardy.

Since India began engaging the Myanmar generals, both sides have cooperated in flushing out northeastern rebels along the joint border.

A foreign ministry official said although New Delhi had refrained from seeking any information about Suu Kyi in public, during private conversations with Myanmarese leaders it always sought information about her "wellbeing."

Earlier this week, under Western pressure to react, India urged Myanmar to launch a probe into the bloody crackdown and speed up the process of political reform.

A group of US senators on Wednesday demanded intense US pressure on China and India to force them to sever ties with Myanmar's junta.

But in a sign that India was unwilling to abandon the regime, Indian envoy Singh said he regretted the wording of the UN resolution, which strongly deplored "the continued violent repression of peaceful demonstrations."

Singh said the resolution's "unhelpful tone does not contribute to effectively pursuing the objective of engaging constructively with the authorities in Myanmar, which is essential to make a difference to the situation on the ground."

India was always in favour of "promotion and protection of human rights through dialogue and cooperation," in a manner that was "non-condemnatory," he added.

C. Uday Bhaskar, former head of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses think-tank, said India's statement showed it would continue with a "nuanced approach towards Myanmar."

India's call for change in Myanmar would not be "very strident," he said, even though "a lot of people are dismayed that India has taken the realpolitik line for a decade... that we have not been able to balance democratic values and security interests."