AYE AYE WIN
YANGON
A UN human rights envoy was allowed to enter military-ruled Burma for the first time in four years yesterday on a mission to determine how many people have been killed or detained since the start of a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN's independent rights investigator for Burma, also known as Myanmar, said he is determined to gain access to the country's prisons as part of an investigation into wide-ranging allegations of abuse by the military junta.
He submitted a proposed itinerary to the junta before the start of his five-day visit, but it was still being "fine-tuned", Aye Win, the UN spokesman in Burma, said yesterday.
"I hope I will have a very productive stay," Pinheiro told reporters after flying into Yangon, Burma's largest city. "I'm just very happy to be back here after four years."
Pinheiro has a history of prickly relations with the ruling generals. He abruptly cut short a visit in March 2003 after finding a listening device in a room at a prison where he was interviewing political detainees. He has been barred from the country since November 2003.
Accompanied by authorities, Pinheiro's first stop in Burma was a Buddhist monastery in the town of Bago, 50 miles north of Yangon, the UN said.
He returned to Yangon to meet officials at Shwedagon Pagoda, the country's most revered shrine and a flash point of unrest during protests.
The junta has been under renewed international pressure since it crushed pro-democracy demonstrations, led by Buddhist monks, in Yangon in September.
Burma authorities said 10 people were killed when troops opened fire on crowds. Dissidents claim the death toll was much higher. - AP
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article