Suu Kyi followers: Burmese pro-democracy activists hold portraits of their leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest in front of the Japan's Foreign Ministry in Tokyo yesterday. UN special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari arrived in Tokyo to meet with Japanese officials and discuss the Myanmar crisis.Picture: EPA
Friday, October 26, 2007
A TOP UN human rights official vowed Wednesday to seek "free access" during his visit to Myanmar next month, as well as a full accounting of how many people died in recent anti-government protests.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN Human Rights Council's independent human rights expert or Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, said he planned to travel to Myanmar immediately after UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari who is to return to the country early next month.
"I intend to go immediately after Mr Gambari ... but before November 17," Pinheiro, a Brazilian, told reporters after briefing a General Assembly panel on the human rights situation in Myanmar.
"I will be particularly concerned to verify the numbers, whereabouts and conditions of those currently detained, as well as an accounting for the numbers killed during the protests," he told the panel.
He made it clear that he would press for "free access" and would in particular insist to visit prisons to speak to detainees.
"Today the ambassador (of Myanmar) assured me that they will give full cooperation," he added, warning that he would leave the country if he did not get full cooperation.
"My task is to offer a honest, complex, objective picture of the crisis ... the excessive use of force, what's happening in terms of detainees, the number of deaths," he said.
Pinheiro pointed out that since the repression began he had received "worrying reports of death in custody, torture, disappearances, ill-treatment, and lack of access to food, water or medical treatment in overcrowded unsanitary conditions facilities across the country".
Monday, Myanmar's ruling junta gave its consent for the first visit by the UN's top human rights official in four years.
It suggested that Pinheiro pay the visit before the summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations scheduled to begin in Singapore in the second half of November.
"This is just a reaction to the international pressure and a reason to keep the pressure up," said Steve Crawshaw, UN advocacy director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"From both visits we need to have the spotlight on the kind of things that have been going on and are still going on in Burma (Myanmar): the killings, mass arrests, mass detentions. We still don't know how many people have been killed. We need a little bit of honesty by the regime," he added.
In his statement to the assembly panel, Pinheiro also noted that while world attention has been focused on the pro-democracy protests in Myanmar's cities, "a hidden war has decimated generations of Karen, Shan and other minority groups (that) have faced the consequences of conflict for decades".
He cited "credible" reports of "ongoing violations of international humanitarian law committed against internally displaced communities, currently estimated to be at least half a million".
The official said that following his visit, he would present a report with his recommendations to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on December 11.
Both the 47-member Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council have condemned Myanmar's crackdown on peaceful protests and called for the immediate release of all those detained in the recent protests, and of political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Protests against Myanmar's military rulers erupted in the southeast Asian country in mid-August. AFP
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN Human Rights Council's independent human rights expert or Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, said he planned to travel to Myanmar immediately after UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari who is to return to the country early next month.
"I intend to go immediately after Mr Gambari ... but before November 17," Pinheiro, a Brazilian, told reporters after briefing a General Assembly panel on the human rights situation in Myanmar.
"I will be particularly concerned to verify the numbers, whereabouts and conditions of those currently detained, as well as an accounting for the numbers killed during the protests," he told the panel.
He made it clear that he would press for "free access" and would in particular insist to visit prisons to speak to detainees.
"Today the ambassador (of Myanmar) assured me that they will give full cooperation," he added, warning that he would leave the country if he did not get full cooperation.
"My task is to offer a honest, complex, objective picture of the crisis ... the excessive use of force, what's happening in terms of detainees, the number of deaths," he said.
Pinheiro pointed out that since the repression began he had received "worrying reports of death in custody, torture, disappearances, ill-treatment, and lack of access to food, water or medical treatment in overcrowded unsanitary conditions facilities across the country".
Monday, Myanmar's ruling junta gave its consent for the first visit by the UN's top human rights official in four years.
It suggested that Pinheiro pay the visit before the summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations scheduled to begin in Singapore in the second half of November.
"This is just a reaction to the international pressure and a reason to keep the pressure up," said Steve Crawshaw, UN advocacy director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"From both visits we need to have the spotlight on the kind of things that have been going on and are still going on in Burma (Myanmar): the killings, mass arrests, mass detentions. We still don't know how many people have been killed. We need a little bit of honesty by the regime," he added.
In his statement to the assembly panel, Pinheiro also noted that while world attention has been focused on the pro-democracy protests in Myanmar's cities, "a hidden war has decimated generations of Karen, Shan and other minority groups (that) have faced the consequences of conflict for decades".
He cited "credible" reports of "ongoing violations of international humanitarian law committed against internally displaced communities, currently estimated to be at least half a million".
The official said that following his visit, he would present a report with his recommendations to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on December 11.
Both the 47-member Human Rights Council and the UN Security Council have condemned Myanmar's crackdown on peaceful protests and called for the immediate release of all those detained in the recent protests, and of political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Protests against Myanmar's military rulers erupted in the southeast Asian country in mid-August. AFP