In early 2006, I resigned as the United Nations Secretary General's Special Envoy to Myanmar [Burma]. By that time, I had been to Myanmar 14 times, stretched out over a period of four years. The first visit was in 2000 when the United Nations sent me there with a delegation on my first mission. It was then that I met Aung San Suu Kyi and the Myanmar Secretary One, Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt. It was he who arranged for me to see her. It was the middle of June, the monsoon period, and very hot and humid.

I was taken in a government car to University Avenue where Suu Kyi stayed. We waited in a room on whose wall hung a huge painting of Suu Kyi's late father. I was aware of the significance of the moment as I sat there. I knew that something very special was about to impact on my life. After a period of waiting she emerged, cool and composed, in a traditional blue blouse and sarong, with bunga melor (jasmine flower) in her hair. Call it a grand entrance, if you like. She was polite and dignified, placing me on her right as she sat with me on a semicircular settee, her back ramrod straight. It was one of those settees without backs, the kind that tends to make one slouch if one is not careful, and it made me painfully aware of my own posture, sitting beside her with her back straight as a dancer.