Myanmar softens to Aung San Suu Kyi

By John Raedler
Bangkok Bueau Chief

YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Private talks between Myanmar's military government and the country's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi are proceeding "quite smoothly," a government spokesman has told CNN.

In an exclusive interview, Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win said the recent death of the government's fourth highest official would not affect the dialogue.

"These are entirely two different things," he said.

"We all felt the tragic loss of Lt.-Gen. Tin Oo," killed in a helicopter crash last week. "But ... the government must go on," Khin Maung Win said.

"In the case of the ongoing process with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, of course, this will go on," he added, using a term of respect for a woman.

Disputing reports that the dialogue with the Nobel Peace Prize winner had caused a split in the military government, the deputy minister said, "It was a collective decision of the leadership and it will definitely go on."

Khin Maung Win would not reveal details of the discussions, started last October and fostered by a U.N. special envoy.

'Confidential manner'

"There was an agreement on both sides to keep this in a confidential manner," he said. "So ... I'm not in a position to divulge the details."

Neither the government nor Aung San Suu Kyi have revealed the substance of their talks, even to a European Union delegation which met with both sides last month.

But Khin Maung Win gave CNN a rare assessment of the dialogue. "We are quite satisfied with the way the ongoing process is going on and that it is going quite smoothly," he said.

He said there was no deadline for the talks to end.

Aung San Suu Kyi appears to have been restricted to her house since last September, but the deputy minister denied that she was under detention.

"Let me put it that she is not under detention," he said.

Referring to the EU delegation's visit with the democracy advocate in late January, Khin Maung Win said, "They mentioned that she is quite happy with the present circumstances."

CNN can find no record of any EU official saying Aung San Suu Kyi was "happy" with the restrictions on her movements.

"We found her in a very good mood and well in all respects, very focused on the questions that she's concerned about," a spokesman for the delegation said after a two-hour visit at her home.

The spokesman added that at times her conversation was "full of humor and wit."

Separately, Jan Axel Nordlander, the Swedish ambassador to Thailand, has described Aung San Suu Kyi's situation this way: "It seems at this time that [she] is accepting for the time being, in a temporary way, these conditions -- as long as the dialogue goes on."

Dialogue with regime

A senior U.S. official has met with Aung San Suu Kyi, who reaffirmed her commitment to dialogue with the ruling military regime, a U.S. diplomat said Tuesday.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Ralph Boyce met with Suu Kyi at her Yangon residence on Monday. He is the first U.S. official to see her during five months of house detention that began after she tried to travel outside the capital for political work.

"She appeared to be in good health. She had told the visiting U.S. official that she is committed to peaceful dialogue and hopes it will lead to national reconciliation," the diplomat said on customary condition of anonymity.

Boyce also held separate meetings with Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the third-ranking general in the regime, Foreign Minister Win Aung and some central executive committee members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, the diplomat said.

The NLD won general elections in 1990 but the military has refused to honor the result.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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