Aung San Suu Kyi and Thein Sein meet for the first time in Naypyidaw

(August 20, 2011) National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi today met President Thein Sein in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s new capital on Friday. A government official, who spoke on conditional of anonymity, told The Irrawaddy that Ms Suu Kyi met Thein Sein briefly around 1 pm local time, adding that Suu Kyi also toured the town, which she had seen before. For some observers, the meeting is an olive branch by the civilian government (albeit mostly military officers who ruled for two decades) to the Nobel Prize laureate and the opposition leader. However, critics are less impressed. For them, the encounter was just another attempt by Myanmar rulers to gain legitimacy for the new government vis-à-vis the United States and the European Union. The latter have maintained economic and trade sanctions on the former Burma. Thein Sein received the NLD leader at the presidential palace. A prominent leader in the former military junta, he was the nice face of a regime that held Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 of the past 21 years.