Not So Warm a Welcome.(U.N. delegate in Burma)

Ismail Razali pushed hard for a meeting with the head of Burma's military government. The U.N. secretary-general's special envoy hoped to restart talks between the regime and Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader released in May from house arrest after months of intense diplomacy. But in Rangoon last Thursday, Burma's leaders-- Senior Gen. Than Shwe, Gen. Maung Aye and Gen. Khin Nyunt--gave the Malaysian diplomat only 15 minutes before showing him the door. "It was not a good sign," says Josef Silverstein, a noted Burma expert. "The meeting was hardly long enough to sit down and pick up a cup of tea."

Actually, it was a bitter disappointment. Since the spring, the government has released more than 350 members of the opposition National League for Democracy party--as well as scores of prisoners from other groups. Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi has been granted permission to travel within the nation's borders and has reopened more than 65 NLD offices. But opponents of the regime say that these concessions are beginning to look like little more than window dressing: Suu Kyi has reported no progress in talks about expanding democracy in Burma, and repression in the countryside is as bad as ever. "If it just goes on and on, I may decide to step down," Razali told a Malaysian journalist two weeks ago.

It's obvious why the regime may be stalling. Per capita income, reported months ago to be about $300, is in free fall. The price of rice, the staple of the Burmese diet, has tripled outside Rangoon, according to the NLD. The United Nations says that one in 50 Burmese adults is infected with HIV, one of the highest rates in the world. The government had hoped that its concessions would relieve the country's international isolation and draw desperately needed foreign aid and investment.

Rather than follow through with real reforms, though, the generals have tried simply to put their limited moves in the best possible light. In May, just after Suu Kyi's release, the regime signed a one-year deal with DCI Associates, a Washington lobbying and public-relations firm. Exile groups say DCI's efforts landed Burma's drug czar an invitation to high-level meetings with Bush administration officials in July. In Rangoon the regime has been doing some lobbying of its own. It has hosted a parade of U.N. dignitaries, downplaying human-rights abuses and pumping them with pleas for greater humanitarian aid even while continuing to crack down on ...