Detained Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was escorted into surprise talks with a junta official on Saturday, a week after writing a letter to the military leader proposing a new era of cooperation.
The unannounced meeting between Suu Kyi and Relations Minister Aung Kyi lasted 45 minutes and took place at a government guest house near her lakeside home in Yangon, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ms. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was driven to the meeting in a police motorcade, the officials said. Details of the talks were not immediately known.
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The meeting came a week after Suu Kyi sent a letter to junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe. In it, she said she is willing to cooperate with the junta in having international sanctions lifted and proposed that she meet with Western diplomats to discuss the measures, according to her National League for Democracy party.
“I don’t know what they discussed, but I believe it could be related to the letter sent last week to the senior general,” said Suu Kyi’s lawyer Nyan Win, who is also a spokesman for her opposition party.
The letter appeared to be a confidence-building gesture to the junta. Ms. Suu Kyi, 64, had previously welcomed sanctions as a way to pressure the junta to achieve political reconciliation with the pro-democracy movement.
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The movement has insisted on concessions from the government if they are to work together, particularly the freeing of political prisoners and the reopening of party offices around the country.