Myanmar’s embattled opposition party urged the ruling military junta Friday to quickly meet fresh demands by the U.N. Security Council for dialogue between the generals and pro-democracy forces and the release of political prisoners.
The U.N. also was to dispatch its special envoy to Myanmar to the region. Ibrahim Gambari was traveling to Asia over the weekend, making his first stop in Thailand on Sunday in a series of consultations with key governments before heading to Yangon.

In a statement, the National League for Democracy – led by detained activist Aung San Suu Kyi – also endorsed the Council’s condemnation of the government’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, when troops opened fire on marchers Sept. 26-27.

“Since Myanmar is a member country of the United Nations and as the government has declared it would work with the U.N., we earnestly underscore the need to urgently implement the demands made by the Security Council,” the NLD said.

The 15-member Security Council issued its first statement on Myanmar Thursday in an attempt to pressure the military rulers in charge of the impoverished country since 1988 to enter a dialogue with the opposition and make moves toward democratic reforms.

The fourth-ranking member of the junta, Prime Minister Gen. Soe Win, 59, died Friday in a military hospital after a long illness, relatives and state media said. Soe Win reputedly oversaw a 2003 attack against Suu Kyi from which she escaped unscathed.

His death, however, was unlikely to cause a ripple in the regime’s grip on power. Soe Win had little if any influence in policy-making as prime minister and was largely considered a figurehead for the junta.

The U.N. envoy, Gambari, was to begin his consultations in Thailand on Monday and then travel to Malaysia, Indonesia, India, China and Japan, “with a view to returning to Myanmar shortly thereafter,” U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. She gave no date for his trip to Yangon.

Gambari met with the junta’s leaders earlier this month during a four-day trip to Myanmar after troops opened fire on peaceful protests in Yangon. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after Gambari’s visit that he could not call the trip “a success.”

Myanmar’s military junta has said 10 people were killed and nearly 2,100 arrested in last month’s demonstrations, with 700 later released. Diplomats and dissidents say the death toll is likely much higher and up to 6,000 people were seized, including thousands of monks who led the rallies.

At least a dozen freed prisoners described brutal treatment at detention centers, including one who said “dozens” of detainees were killed, the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based short-wave radio station and Web site run by dissident journalists, said in a report Thursday.

There was no way to independently confirm the reports attributed to freed prisoners.

In an interview with The Associated Press, another released prisoner, Zaw Myint, 45, said he was arrested Sept. 26 on a Yangon street after a soldier bashed his face with the butt of his gun, leaving a bloody gash across his cheek.

Zaw Myint said he was denied treatment for three days then stitched up by a doctor at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison, after the physician had treated several other wounded prisoners.

Human rights groups have long accused the military government of abuse and torture of prisoners. The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, comprised of around 100 former inmates, has put out a report describing homosexual rape, electric shocks to the genitals, near drowning, burning with hot wax and other abuse.

Myanmar’s national airline announced Friday it was halting most of its flights amid a dramatic downturn in visitors. Myanmar Airways International suspended flights to Thailand and Malaysia after its insurer halted coverage “due to the recent crisis in Myanmar,” the airline said in a statement. It didn’t name the insurance company.

The number of people traveling to Myanmar has dropped dramatically following globally televised reports of the crackdown. A number of governments have advised their citizens against visiting Myanmar because of possible violence. Several big tour operators have called for a boycott as the debate on the ethics of visiting Myanmar intensifies.

Also Friday, Thai police said a bomb exploded in a guesthouse just across the border inside Myanmar, injuring one person. Col. Photsawat Tangchui, a police chief in the border district of Mae Sod in Tak province, said the blast hit the Shwebyisaya hotel, about 30 meters from border.