Yangon, Nov 11 (Xinhua) United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro is due to arrive here Sunday on a five-day visit to look into the human rights situation in the military-ruled country.
Pinheiro is visiting Myanmar after four years since he last visited the country in Nov 2003. The visit has been scheduled following an urgent appeal by the 47-nation Human Rights Council to carry out an immediate investigation of the rights situation in Myanmar and the ruling militanry junta’s subsequent agreement for it.
Pinheiro’s trip came a week ahead of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) scheduled for Nov 17 in Singapore and three days after a second visit to the country by UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who is UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s Special Adviser on Myanmar.
The Myanmar government’s permission for Pinheiro’s re-visit shows another positive sign in the country’s UN-promoted national reconciliation efforts, observers here said.
The Myanmar government has promised it will continue to carry out democratic reforms under its seven-step roadmap and strive for national reconsolidation in co-operation with the UN.
At the same time, detained political leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has pledged readiness to co-operate with the military government in order make the process of dialogue a success in the interest of the nation.
On Friday, a day after Gambari concluded his six-day second mission to Myanmar, Myanmar Liaison Minister U Aung Kyi met twice with Suu Kyi at the State Guest House in Yangon for a second round of talks since the first on Oct 25. More meetings between Suu Kyi and three of her NLD Central Executive Committee members and a party spokesman have been allowed to take place at the same guest house on the same day.
After Pinheiro’s five-day visit, Gambari is expected to make a come-back for the third time in the next few weeks at the invitation of the government to help initiate a substantive dialogue and promote national reconciliation, the UN Information Centre said.
Meanwhile, according to official sources, Myanmar and the UN have also reached an agreement to mandate a person as an acting resident representative of UN agencies.