Eerie silence on slaughter

A UN envoy was today tight-lipped about his meetings with Burma's junta chief and with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in a mission that followed a bloody crackdown on democracy protesters.

An eerie quiet prevailed in Rangoon, Burma’s biggest city, where the junta continued scare tactics. Military vehicles patrolled overnight, with loudspeakers blaring warnings that soldiers were searching for protesters.

“We have photographs. We are going to make arrests,” they threatened.

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Envoy Ibrahim Gambari and reclusive leader Senior General Than Shwe sat together for more than an hour in the remote Burmese capital. Neither side issued any comment.

Gambari then met Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained Nobel laureate, under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years. Today, Gambari met Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, whose country expressed revulsion at the violent suppression of demonstrators.

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