UN Myanmar envoy says won’t return until allowed to meet Suu Kyi

SINGAPORE: The UN’s Myanmar special envoy on Monday vowed not to visit the country again unless she is allowed to meet ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after a heavily-criticised trip to meet the junta.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar’s bloody impasse led by the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc have made little headway, with the generals refusing to engage with opponents.

United Nations Special Envoy Noeleez Heyzer met with senior junta leaders in the capital last month during her first visit, 10 months after her appointment. She was denied access to detained democracy figurehead Suu Kyi, who has been sentenced to a total of two decades in prison. The UN envoy later irked junta officials who accused her of issuing a "one-sided statement" of what had been discussed.

Heyzer had called for an immediate end to violence and the release of all political prisoners, her office said at the time. More than 2,200 people have been killed and more than 15,000 arrested in the military’s crackdown on dissent since it seized power in February 2021, according to a local rights group.

Days after Heyzer’s visit dozens of Myanmar civil society groups dismissed her trip as the "latest evidence of the historical ineffectualness" of UN envoys, and criticised her meeting with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.