Suu Kyi meets Myanmar president
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi held talks with the country's president on Sunday in their first official meeting since she took up her role as a member of parliament. The democracy champion met Myanmar leader Thein Sein in the capital Naypyidaw early Sunday, according to Zaw Htay of the president's office, who was unable to give details of the subjects under discussion. He added that Railway Minister Aung Min, a key figure in efforts to resolve the country's ethnic conflicts, was among those present at the talks. It is the third official meeting between Myanmar's Nobel laureate and the president since Suu Kyi was released from house arrest following a controversial election in November 2010. A new quasi-civilian government with close links to the former ruling junta has earned plaudits -- and the easing of Western sanctions -- for a series of reforms since taking power last year, including freeing hundreds of political prisoners. Suu Kyi, who won her seat in April by-elections, has been named as the head of a parliamentary committee on the rule of law as she marks her dramatic transformation from detained dissident to a key figure in the budding reform process. In her maiden speech to the legislature last month she called for laws to protect the rights of the strife-torn nation's ethnic minorities. She also warned that the "flames of war are not completely extinguished" in the country, which has seen ongoing fighting in Kachin state in the north that has displaced tens of thousands of people. Recent clashes between Buddhist ethnic Rakhine and Muslim Rohingya have left dozens dead and tens of thousands homeless in Rakhine state in the west of the country. Suu Kyi has disappointed some rights campaigners by not offering stronger support to Myanmar's estimated 800,000 Rohingya, described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities. Myanmar has come under international pressure over the conflict, after the United Nations voiced concerns of a crackdown on Muslims and Human Rights Watch issued a report alleging abuses by security forces in the region. The government, which denies the rights group's claims, has given the go ahead for Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to deliver aid to affected areas after talks last week, the pan-Islamic body said on Saturday.
