"Suu Kyi meets Myanmar’s president" August 20, 2011|Associated Press
YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar’s government invited democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to a meeting yesterday with the president, state-run television reported, in her highest contact with the new, nominally civilian government since her release from house arrest in November.
Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein held “frank and friendly discussions’’ to “find ways and means of cooperation,’’ the state-run broadcast reported while airing video of them greeting each other.
The meeting lasted nearly an hour and was “significant,’’ a government source told the Associated Press earlier. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with journalists.
The 66-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has called for dialogue with the government since her release from seven years of house arrest.
If Suu Kyi’s opposition party reaches an accommodation with the government, it could serve as a reason for Western nations to lift political and economic embargoes on the country that have hindered development and pushed it into dependence on neighboring China.
Nyan Win, the spokesman for Suu Kyi’s Nation League for Democracy party, told the AP that Suu Kyi’s meeting “could be the first step toward national reconciliation’’ but declined to elaborate until details were available.
The president, who was prime minister under the military junta that handed over power to his government in March, is reputed to be a moderate and relatively accessible compared to past leaders
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