UN secretary-general deeply disappointed" in Myanmar (1st Lead)

Yangon - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday called on Myanmar's junta to allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to participate in politics. Ban was speaking after being denied access to the democracy icon on his two-day official visit to the country. 'I am deeply disappointed with the refusal of the Senior General to let me meet with Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi,' a grim looking Ban told a press briefing before departing Myanmar Saturday evening. Ban met with Myanmar junta chief Senior General Than Shwe twice on Friday and Saturday in Naypyi taw, 350 kiloemtres north of Yangon, to press for the freedom of Suu Kyi and 2,100 other political prisoners and to request permission to visit the Nobel peace prize laureate. He was denied the visit twice. Suu Kyi, 64, is currently on trial for breaking the terms of her detnetion and is likely to be sentenced to 3-5 years in prison soon, which would assure her absence in the upcoming 2010 general election planned by Myanmar's military rulers. 'Daw Aung san Suu Kyi must be allowed to participate in the political process without delay,' Ban said. In a strongly worded statement, Ban added: 'Without respect for human rights and democracy a country cannot develop.' Suu Kyi is currently in Yangon's notorious Insein Prison. Ban arrived in Yangon mid-day Saturday from Naypyitaw, the junta's headquarters, and paid a quick visit to the Irrawaddy Delta, which was devastated by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3 last year, leaving an estimated 140,000 people dead or missing. Ban last visited Myanmar a year ago, when he succeeded in persuading Than Shwe to facilitate international aid to the millions of victims left homeless and without food or medicine by the cyclone. He has been less successful this trip, which aimed at putting political pressure on the authoritarian regime that has ruled Myanmar since 1988. Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy opposition party, has been imprisoned for 14 of the past 20 years and faces another three to five years in jail if found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest. The Nobel peace laureate has been charged with deliberately allowing US citizen John William Yettaw to swim to her lakeside residence May 3 and spend two nights in her compound. A special court was scheduled to hear a defence witness in the Suu Kyi case Friday, but the hearing was postponed until July 10, perhaps because of Ban's arrival. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta ever since. The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house arrest sentence expired May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and statements of concern from its regional allies in ASEAN. Ban will stopover in Bangkok Saturday night, when he has scheduled a brief meeting with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport. 'Abhisit is meeting the UN secretary-general both in his capacity as prime minister and as the current chair of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN),' Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said. 'Obviously Myanmar will be discussed but it will not be a single- issue meeting,' Thani added.