UN rights envoy to revisit Burma

By Larry Jagan BBC Burma analyst

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Professor Paulo Pinheiro, is due to return to Rangoon on another investigative mission.

Mr Pinheiro is scheduled to start a nine-day visit on 31 October.

This is a follow-up to his interrupted visit earlier this year when the UN envoy left Burma after discovering a listening device in the room in which he was interviewing political prisoners.

Paulo Pinheiro will call for an end to restrictions on the opposition

UN sources told the BBC that Professor Pinheiro hopes to meet key Burmese government ministers, including the Prime Minister, General Khin Nyunt, and representatives of opposition parties and ethnic groups.

He certainly plans to see the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who is currently under virtual house arrest after being discharged from hospital a month ago after a major gynaecological operation.

The Burmese foreign minister Win Aung recently told the BBC that she was recuperating in her residence and access to her was limited under a mutually agreed security arrangement.

PINHEIRO'S AIMS Lift restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi Release NLD leaders Reopen NLD offices Investigate attack on opposition

This could be a key visit as no one has had access to her since the UN envoy Razali Ismail saw her a fortnight ago.

Mr Pinheiro will certainly be urging Burma's military rulers to lift all remaining restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi and to release all the other leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD) from house arrest.

He will also call for the re-opening of the party's offices and for NLD activists to be allowed to carry out their normal political work without fear of harassment or arrest.

These have been key demands of the envoy ever since he took up his post.

For a while there was some progress with the release of hundreds of political prisoners.

Attack on opposition

But in the past year there has been a reversal of many of these concessions as the regime cracked down on the NLD and its leader.

Of course the major issue on this trip will be the attack by pro-government demonstrators on Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters at the end of May, which left several people dead.

The opposition leader has demanded justice for the victims of the attack and a thorough investigation into why it happened and who was involved.

Mr Pinheiro will undoubtedly be raising this with both Aung San Suu Kyi and the prime minister.

UN sources say he may take the same approach he did to the allegations last year of the systematic rape of ethnic women in Shan state - either the government conducts a credible and independent inquiry into the event or he be allowed to carry out his own investigation.

The issue of human rights abuses in Shan state will also feature prominently on this trip.