By\u00a0AFP\u00a024 April 2023<\/p>\n
YANGON\u2014 Former United Nations (UN) chief Ban Ki-moon has arrived in Myanmar, junta-controlled media reported on Monday, as the bloody conflict engulfing the country spirals.<\/p>\n
Diplomatic efforts to end the crisis unleashed by the military\u2019s 2021 coup have stalled, with the junta ignoring international criticism of its brutal crackdown on dissent and refusing to engage with its opponents.<\/p>\n
Military regime media gave no details of Ban\u2019s visit, but he is a member of \u201cThe Elders\u201d group of world leaders founded by Nelson Mandela, which works to promote peace and defuse conflicts.<\/p>\n
Ban and his team \u201carrived in Naypyitaw by air yesterday evening\u201d, the junta-run Global New Light of Myanmar reported.<\/p>\n
He was met by the deputy ministers for defense and foreign affairs, the newspaper said, without providing details.<\/p>\n
A bulletin on regime TV showed Ban waving for the cameras as he arrived at the airport, accompanied by several officials.<\/p>\n
AFP has contacted The Elders for comment on Ban\u2019s trip.<\/p>\n
Ban, who also served as South Korea\u2019s foreign minister, travelled to Myanmar several times during his time as UN secretary general, with varying degrees of success negotiating with the generals.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In 2016, with Suu Kyi out of jail and serving as Myanmar\u2019s de facto civilian leader, he returned to solidify international support for her push to sign peace agreements with the country\u2019s myriad ethnic rebel groups.<\/p>\n
Suu Kyi was detained again at the start of the 2021 coup, which plunged the country into tumult and tanked the economy.<\/p>\n
UN special envoy for Myanmar Noeleen Heyzer requested a meeting with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi during her visit to the country in August last year.<\/p>\n
The Myanmar military rebuffed the request and Heyzer later vowed she would not visit the country again unless she was allowed to meet the Nobel laureate.<\/p>\n
The junta wrapped up a series of closed-court trials of Suu Kyi in December, jailing her for a total of 33 years in a process rights groups have condemned as a sham.<\/p>\n