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YANGON : UN human rights expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro arrived in Myanmar on Sunday for his first visit in four years, promising to investigate abuses committed by the ruling military during recent protests.
Rights groups have urged Pinheiro to seize the opportunity to push the military-run country towards reform, with the Brazilian envoy previously saying he will leave if unnecessary restrictions are put on his movements.
Pinheiro landed in Myanmar's main city of Yangon in the early afternoon, saying he was "very happy" to be making his first visit since 2003, the last time the military allowed him in.
"I hope that I will have a very productive stay," he told reporters, declining to give details about his itinerary, which he said was still being discussed.
He previously told reporters at the United Nations he would try and find out how many people died when the military launched a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests in September.
The government said 10 people were killed and about 3,000 detained, but diplomats and rights groups put both figures far higher.
Pinheiro is also expected to try and visit political detainees, and look into reports of human rights abuses against ethnic minority groups.
His visit comes just days after a mission by UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who pressed the generals to establish a dialogue with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Security was tight in Yangon on Sunday with dozens of police surrounding Pinheiro's hotel.
The envoy left for the town of Bago, about 80 kilometres north of Yangon, soon after his arrival, a UN official said, without revealing the purpose of the excursion.
On Monday, Pinheiro will travel to the isolated new capital Naypyidaw, a Myanmar government official who did not wish to be named told AFP.
"He will meet with the foreign minister, labour minister and the human rights committee. He will meet with the prime minister before he goes back to Yangon on November 14th," the official said.
It was not clear if Pinheiro, who will leave Myanmar on Thursday, would meet with Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader who has spent 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest at her Yangon home.
Human rights groups have called on Pinheiro to pressure the ruling military to release political prisoners arrested after September's rallies, which began in response to a spike in fuel prices but quickly swelled.
Amnesty International on Friday estimated that 700 political prisoners are still in detention, including 91 detained during the recent protests, and accused the authorities of the enforced disappearance of at least 72 people.
The authorities must "immediately and unconditionally" release all political prisoners in the country formerly known as Burma, the group said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch said the UN Security Council should "redouble efforts to prod Burma's generals into starting a genuine political dialogue and ending human rights abuses."
Gambari's visit ended on Thursday with the UN declaring that progress had been made, and on Friday, Aung San Suu Kyi met a junta official and members of her political party, the National League for Democracy.
NLD spokesman Nyan Win told AFP that they were hoping for a visit at their Yangon headquarters from Pinheiro, but had heard nothing from the authorities.
State newspaper the New Light of Myanmar made no mention of the trip on Sunday, and instead devoted pages to a detailed account of Prime Minister Thein Sein's recent visits to Laos and Vietnam.
It also trumpeted Myanmar's "road map" to democracy, which critics say simply enshrines the role of the military and has no legitimacy as the opposition had no input in the process.
Win Min, a Myanmar analyst who lives in Thailand, said the ruling military may have offered Pinheiro a rare invitation to try and cool pressure ahead of a meeting later this month of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). - AFP/de
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