YANGON - Mystery surrounded the whereabouts of U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Monday after he flew to Myanmar's new jungle capital to persuade the junta to end its crackdown on the biggest pro-democracy protests in 20 years.
One diplomatic source said Gambari was being made to wait until Tuesday to meet junta supremo Senior General Than Shwe, and with the streets of Yangon quiet on Monday, had gone on a trip to Lashio, in the hills of Shan state, near the Chinese border.
No reasons for the destination were offered, although one Bangkok-based diplomat said a small group of travelling European academics was in the capital, Naypyidaw, 240 miles (385 km) north of Yangon, and due in Lashio on Tuesday.
United Nations officials with Gambari were outside mobile phone coverage, the U.N. office in Yangon had not heard a word, and no other diplomats in the former capital could shed any light on his whereabouts.
The delay does not augur well for Gambari's mission, hastily arranged last week when the junta sent in soldiers to crush more than a week of monk-led mass protests against decades of military rule and deepening poverty in the former Burma.
The 74-year-old Senior General is frequently rumoured to be in poor health but -- more ominously -- has a well-deserved reputation as military hardliner who pays scant regard to the cares and concerns of the outside world.
"MINIMALIST"
The only certain thing about Gambari, a former Nigerian foreign minister, is that he was still in the country 48 hours after his arrival, a prospect that did not look likely when he arrived.
British ambassador Mark Canning said China had pushed for Gambari's mission to be as long and as far-reaching as possible, getting permission for him to fly to Naypyidaw where he met the acting Prime Minister and Information and Cultural Ministers.
He then returned to Yangon for an hour with opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest and incommunicado for nearly 12 of the last 18 years.
His immediate return to Naypyidaw sparked hopes of the seeds of "shuttle diplomacy" between a military that has been in charge for the last 45 years, and Suu Kyi's democracy camp.
