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Published on November 17, 2007

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, yesterday reiterated his demand that thousands of political prisoners should be released.

Speaking in Bangkok after a five-day visit to the trouble-torn country, the UN envoy, however, did not set a time frame for release of the detainees.

"I cannot impose any time frame on that issue. I think even my dear colleague Ibrahim Gambari [UN Special envoy to Burma] has not imposed any time frame. I have a very humble mandate," he said during a press briefing yesterday.

Pinheiro returned to military-ruled Burma after four years to make an assessment on the human rights situation after the bloody protest in September, in which a score of protesters died and thousands were detained.

He will present a report to the UN Human Rights Council by December 11, about his findings during his trip. The report, he said, would mention the number of casualties and detainees as a result of the bloody crackdown.

The Burmese government has put the number of deaths at 14, excluding a Japanese journalist. The 14 corpses have already been cremated and no monks were included, he said.

However, estimates of the number of deaths have ranged from dozens to thousands, but Pinheiro said he would collate all the data from various sources into his report within two weeks.

He said there were also discrepancies in the number of detainees. The Burmese representative at the UN had said there we 2,775 detainees, while the ministry of home affairs said that 2,900 had already been released.

A former government technical college that was used during the protest as a detention facility took in 1,900 in just a few days, Pinheiro said.

The government has admitted that it detained less than 3,000 protesters.

During his visit to Insein Prison, Pinheiro met five political prisoners including Win Tin, the oldest political prisoner, who was sentenced to 18 years. He also met Su Su Nway, a prominent activist who was arrested on Wednesday, and Min Zeya and Than Tin - both '8888' generation students who were involved in the uprising in August 1988.

The UN official was not allowed to see opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has spent 12 years under house arrest out of her 18 years in Rangoon. The government would allow him to see her during his next visit, but gave no hint when that might be.

Shortly after Pinheiro finished his visit to Insein jail on Thursday, the government released 53 people, but only six were political prisoners.

Supalak G Khundee

The Nation