Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi will hold talks with President Thein Sein on Friday, a government source said, the first meeting between the two and the latest olive branch from the new, nominally civilian administration, Reuters reported. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who spent a total of 15 years in detention under the country's former military rulers for campaigning for democracy, had arrived in the capital, Naypyitaw, to meet Thein Sein, the country's first civilian president and a former top general in the old military regime. Suu Kyi, 66, who was released when her latest stint of house arrest expired last November, would not attend an economics workshop, as previously planned, a government source told Reuters. It is the first visit by Suu Kyi to Naypyitaw, a city built five years ago on a mountain plateau about 205 miles (330 km) north of the biggest city, Yangon. The charismatic, Oxford-educated daughter of Myanmar's late independence hero, General Aung San, is the figurehead of the country's fight against military dictatorship. The military's unbroken, 49-year grip on power officially ended in March, when the ruling State Peace and Development Council made way for a nominally civilian government led mostly by retired generals. The relationship between Suu Kyi and the military has long been frosty but the new government has in the past few weeks taken steps towards engagement by arranging two meetings with Labour Minister Aung Kyi. Thein Sein called on Thursday for several armed ethnic rebel groups to hold peace talks with the government to end decades of hostilities. -- SPA
