UN rights envoy meets Myanmar officials, monks

MYANMAR, UN human rights expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro met with Myanmar officials Monday on his mission to discover how many people were killed during the junta's suppression of pro-democracy protests.

Pihneiro, allowed back into the country by the regime for the first time in four years, met home affairs officials in the main city of Yangon and would later meet senior Buddhist monks, a Myanmar official told AFP.

Monks were at the forefront of the protests, which began in August in response to a spike in fuel prices but swelled in the following weeks into the biggest anti-government demonstrations the junta has faced since 1988.

The government maintains 10 people died but diplomats and dissidents have put the number far higher. Pinheiro has said he would try to uncover the actual toll.

"I hope that I will have a very productive stay," he told reporters on arrival Sunday, declining to give details about his itinerary, which he said was still being discussed.

The UN envoy Pinheiro had been expected to travel Monday to the new capital Naypyidaw, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Yangon, to meet government ministers but that trip had been postponed, the Myanmar official said.

Shortly after his arrival, Pinheiro visited Kya Khat Waing Monastery in the town of Bago, north of Yangon, where he held talks with the head abbot, the United Nations said in a statement. He later met officials of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the UN said.

The gilded shrine is the most sacred in Myanmar and has traditionally been the rallying point for anti-government protests, including the most recent ones.

Rights groups have urged Pinheiro to seize the opportunity to push the junta towards reform, with the envoy previously saying he would leave if unnecessary restrictions were put on his movements.

Yangon, Monday, AFP