YANGON (AFP) — UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari toured Myanmar's cyclone-struck delta Tuesday while on a mission to push the junta to re-open talks with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi a year after mass anti-government protests.
A Myanmar official said Gambari traveled to Kungyangone township, south of the main city Yangon, to witness the recovery from Cyclone Nargis, which left 138,000 dead or missing in early May.
He had planned to travel by helicopter into more remote regions of the Irrawaddy Delta, the key rice-growing region that bore the brunt of the storm, the official said.
But the flight was cancelled due to heavy rains this week, which have compounded the struggles of 2.4 million cyclone survivors, many of whom remain without permanent shelters.
Gambari was later expected to meet Information Minister Kyaw Hsan in Yangon.
It is Gambari's first visit since the cyclone hit, and comes exactly a year after anti-government protests broke out, sparked by an overnight hike in fuel prices that left many people unable to afford even a bus fare to work.
The former student leaders who led the protest were arrested days later and remain in prison. Buddhist monks began leading the rallies in September but were brutally suppressed by the military.
Gambari's visit aims to restart a political dialogue with the opposition in the military-ruled country that was put on hold when the cyclone hit, and to allow for greater humanitarian access to the disaster victims.
Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. The opposition National League for Democracy led by Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta never allowed them to take office.
UN officials described Gambari's last visit to Myanmar in March as "disappointing," after the junta publicly rebuffed his calls for political reform and rejected his offer to send election monitors for a referendum that approved a new constitution in May.
Gambari met Monday with Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win, state media said, as well as foreign diplomats, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and a special panel overseeing the aid effort for victims of Cyclone Nargis.
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