BURMA:Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi thinks there may have been a change of heart within the junta on political reform after September's bloody crackdown on democracy protests, her party said yesterday.
At a two-hour meeting with top members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) - her first in more than three years - Ms Suu Kyi said the generals were "serious and really willing to work for national reconciliation", spokesman Nyan Win said.
"She is optimistic," he said at NLD headquarters in Rangoon, citing unspecified "practical measures" as reasons to think the military, which has ruled for the last 45 years, may be willing to consider relaxing its total grip on power.
Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, also had a second meeting yesterday with Gen Aung Kyi, a go-between appointed as a result of world outrage at September's crackdown, in which at least 10 people were killed.
In a statement released on her behalf by UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari after his second visit in a month, Ms Suu Kyi described her initial contact with Gen Aung Kyi as constructive and said she was ready to work with the military.
"In the interest of the nation, I stand ready to co-operate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success," she said in her first public comments since her latest period of detention began in May 2003.
A junta statement saying it would "make efforts steadfastly for national reconciliation with the correct co-operation of the UN Secretary General" also gave cause for hope, despite the army's litany of broken promises.
Dominic Faulder, a journalist in Bangkok who has covered Burma for 20 years, said of the generals: "They have always acted in bad faith . . . They are not famous for sticking to their words."