Former United Nations (UN) chief Ban Ki-moon left Myanmar on Monday afternoon after meeting with junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and former president U Thein Sein, but he did not meet the country’s jailed former leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ban arrived in the Myanmar capital Naypyitaw on Sunday at the invitation of the military regime, sources told The Irrawaddy. The former UN Secretary General is the deputy chair of The Elders, a group of former world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela which works to promote peace and defuse conflicts.
On Monday, Ban met with Min Aung Hlaing, General Mya Tun Oo, the junta’s defense minister, and foreign minister U Than Swe.
Sources said the meeting was focused on Myanmar’s political crisis, which was sparked by the Myanmar military’s February 2021 coup.
Ban also had a separate meeting with former president U Thein Sein, who led a quasi-civilian government from 2011-2016.
People familiar with the visit said that Ban Ki-moon didn’t request a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is being held in solitary confinement in Naypyitaw Prison after being jailed for 33 years by a junta court on an array of charges.
The visit by Ban was only the second to Myanmar by a foreign politician since the coup, apart from politicians from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Last year, the UN special envoy for Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer visited the country, but was denied the chance to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Heyzer vowed later not to visit Myanmar again unless she is allowed to meet with Suu Kyi.
Ban travelled to Myanmar several times while UN secretary general and had varying degrees of success negotiating with the generals.
In 2009 he visited to pressure then junta leader Senior General Than Shwe to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but the general brazenly snubbed his attempts to visit the pro-democracy figurehead.
In 2016, with Suu Kyi out of jail and serving as Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader, Ban returned to solidify international support for her push to sign peace agreements with the country’s myriad ethnic rebel groups.
