After
2
Day Myanmar Trip, Nambiar “Trashed” Aung San Suu Kyi to UN
Officials
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
December 3 -- When UN envoy Vijay
Nambiar went to Myanmar
over the US Thanksgiving weekend, he was given only a two day visa,
sources tell Inner City Press, to meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Upon his return he has told UN officials that Aung San Suu Kyi is out
of touch, too hardline, a relic.
Nambiar
is seen as
accommodative to the military government of Than Shwe, and favors
Burmese counter parties of a similar bent. Than Shwe, on the other
hand, likes to have a mere part time and interim UN envoy, in this
case mostly occupied as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's chief of
staff.
On
December 2,
Inner City Press asked Ban's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq to
confirm that Nambiar will briefing the Security Council on December
6, and to respond to criticism of
Nambiar's whirlwind visit to
Myanmar, including by some of those he met with.
Haq
refused to
confirm the briefing -- it was later nevertheless confirmed -- and
said that some liked Nambiar's visit. Certainly, Myanmar's military
government.
One
question is
why Aung San Suu Kyi offer such public praise of Nambiar's visit,
while Nambiar “trashed her,” as one official put it to Inner City
Press, immediately upon his return. Watch this site.
ASSK & UN's Nambiar, subsequent "trashing" no shown
From
the UN's
December
2 transcript:
Inner
City
Press: Just factually, can you confirm that the Chef de Cabinet,
Vijay Nambiar, will be briefing the [Security] Council on 6 December
on his visit to Myanmar? And also, if he’s seen the criticisms
made by a number of the people that he met with, saying that this was
essentially just a kind of a note-taking visit. What’s his
response to those now public
criticisms in Irrawaddy and elsewhere of
the visit by people that he engaged with? What’s his take on the
visit?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson Haq: Well, first of all, I don’t share your
assessment of the trip. There were a number of viewpoints, including
people who were quite pleased with that visit. Secondly, as for the
schedule of the Security Council, I will leave it to the President of
the Security Council, Ambassador Rice, to brief you at 1 p.m. about
what their schedule will be, and she can announce for you what their
upcoming programme is.
Inner
City
Press: Will Mr. Nambiar, either here or at the stakeout or in
some other forum, speak to the press about his publicized and
long-awaited visit to Myanmar?
Acting
Deputy
Spokesperson: Well, if he does brief the Security Council, we
will see at that point whether he intends to brief the press at that
point.
Watch
this site.
, 
