Myanmar ? The military government released 50 members of Myanmar’s pro-democracy party on the same day it met with their leader in a response to international pressure over the crushing of peaceful demonstrations, a party spokesman said Friday.

Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. envoy trying to broker a compromise between party leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the junta, told reporters in Japan the meeting was a good beginning. “But it’s only the first step, so this should lead to early resumption of talks that will lead to tangible results,” he said.

The junta, meanwhile, deployed hundreds of riot police with assault rifles and tear gas in Yangon in an apparent attempt to forestall any protests one month after the government began violently suppressing demonstrations by Buddhist monks, activists and ordinary citizens.

Security was especially tight at the eastern gate of the Shwedagon pagoda, where monks were beaten as police broke up a protest Sept. 26. Barbed wire was put up while police and pro-junta thugs took up positions near the downtown Sule pagoda and other sites of earlier protests.