It seems about the only thing separating Myanmar and North Korea is that North Korea, at least, has brainwashed many of its citizens into believing that they really are living in some sort of socialist paradise, the envy of the rest of the world. In Myanmar, there is no such illusion on the part of its people. They know that they are living under a heavy-handed, irrational military government that behaves with not the least regard for them, the citizens of Myanmar. The UN special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, is in the country attempting to coax opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into talks on political reform with the military junta. As has been the case over the past seven years, the chances for success are, to say the least, slim. Suu Kyi is not about to enter into negotiations of any kind unless a list of preconditions are met first. First and foremost, she demands the release of all political prisoners held by the junta. That includes Suu Kyi herself who has been under house arrest since 2003 after having been under house arrest for years prior to that. Suu Kyi and her NLD party are also demanding the review of the new constitution and honoring the results of the 1990 election that the NLD won by a landslide but which the generals ignored. The new constitution calls for elections in 2010 but guarantees that the army will remain in power. The junta has no intention of meeting any of these preconditions. Gambari is going to try to meet Than Shwe, the head of the junta, in the new and very isolated capitol of Naypyidaw. Even if he manages a meeting with a man who holds him in contempt, there is no reason to believe that any movement will result. The generalissimo is known to dislike Suu Kyi so much that he once stormed out of a meeting with a foreign diplomat simply because the diplomat mentioned her name. The people of Myanmar have repeatedly made their voices heard. The NLD has the intellectual and logistical expertise to govern Myanmar. The UN and the rest of the world should put their full support behind them. The generals' time to go has long passed. __
