Myanmar`s Suu Kyi meets with breakaway party leaders

YANGON, Dec. 30 (Kyodo) - Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi had a private meeting Thursday with leaders of a breakaway opposition party in Yangon.
Chairman Than Nyein and two other leaders, Khin Maung Swe and Win Naing, from the National Democratic Force, a renegade party formed by Suu Kyi's former colleagues in the disbanded National League for Democracy, met with her for about an hour, both sides said after the meeting.
''We didn't discuss politics. It was just a personal meeting,'' Khin Maung Swe told reporters after the meeting held at the house of NLD Vice Chairman Tin Oo.
Win Htein, a senior NLD member who accompanied Suu Kyi at the meeting, confirmed the two sides did not discuss politics.
''As we have agreed earlier, we only talked about our personal and family matters as we all are former colleagues,'' he said, while confirming that the NDF leaders seek another meeting with Suu Kyi.
Former senior members of the NLD, led by Than Nyein and Khin Maung Swe, formed
a new political party in May 2010 to contest in the Nov. 7 junta-sponsored
elections after Suu Kyi and NLD decided to boycott the polls on grounds that
the election laws were ''unfair and unjust.''
The NDF is the biggest opposition party to have participated in the elections,
the country's first in 20 years, which were widely criticized by the opposition
and by the international community as a sham and as a means to maneuver to
cement the junta's grip on power.
It fielded only 163 candidates for 1,159 seats that were up for grabs in the
national and regional parliaments, and won just 12 seats in the national
parliament and four in regional parliaments.
The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won a total of 882
seats, including 488 in the national parliament.
==Kyodo