UN envoy in Myanmar after 4-year ban

"YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A U.N. envoy who returned to Myanmar after a four-year ban visited a notorious prison for political prisoners Monday as he began investigating how many people were killed and detained in a crackdown on demonstrators.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the U.N.'s independent human rights investigator for Myanmar, spent at least two hours at the Insein prison in Yangon, which over the years has held numerous political prisoners. Many former inmates describe torture, abysmal conditions and long stretches in solitary confinement. Details of his visit were not known.

Pinheiro had said said he was determined to gain access to prisons and other sites to assess allegations of abuse. In March 2003, the envoy abruptly cut short a visit to Myanmar after finding a listening device in a prison room where he was interviewing political detainees.

Later that year, Pinheiro accused the ruling military junta of making ``absurd'' excuses to keep political opponents in prison. He had been barred from the country since November 2003.

On Monday, Pinheiro also went to inspect the nearby Government Technical Institute ``where he met with the personnel in charge of the detainees held there during the days of the demonstrations,'' said a statement from the U.N. office in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city.

The institute was one of the major temporary detention centers set up to hold people seized in the September crackdown, as was the headquarters of a police regiment in Thanlyin, where Pinheiro also met with security forces.

The U.N. statement said Pinheiro ``is expecting to interview detainees before the end of his mission and receive further details on their records.''

Pinheiro also met with senior Buddhist abbots and visited two monasteries involved in the pro-democracy protests, the U.N. said. The protests were led by Buddhist monks.

State television Monday night showed Pinheiro visiting the Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery on Yangon's outskirts, which was raided by troops in late September.

The abbot of the monastery, U Yawata, said at the time that 70 monks and lay disciples were taken away during the raid, one of many in which monks were beaten and hauled off in trucks. U Yawata said there were bloodstains on beds as soldiers shot up the complex and stole gold during the raid.

Pinheiro also consulted with senior officials from the ministries of Home Affairs and Law Enforcement, the Yangon office of the ruling junta and Yangon General Hospital, according to the U.N., which added he expected to fly Tuesday to the capital Naypyitaw.

The junta, long criticized over human rights abuses, has come under renewed international pressure since crushing the pro-democracy demonstrations.

Myanmar authorities said 10 people were killed when troops opened fire on crowds of peaceful protesters in Yangon on Sept. 26 and 27. Diplomats and dissidents say the death toll was much higher and that an unknown number of people remain in custody.

Pinheiro cited unidentified persons as saying last month that between 30 and 40 monks and 50 to 70 civilians were allegedly killed.

Pinheiro's trip comes three days after the departure of U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who attempted during a six-day visit to kick-start talks between the junta and the pro-democracy opposition.

As a result of Gambari's trip, detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet the leaders of her opposition party on Friday for the first time in three years. Suu Kyi said through a party spokesman that she was ``very optimistic'' about the prospects for dialogue with the government.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all sides to step up efforts toward reconciliation, warning that Myanamar could not return to situation before the demonstrations.

``The secretary-general reiterates that the return to the status quo that existed before the crisis is not sustainable,'' said U.N. associate spokeswoman Marie Okabe.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won elections in 1990, but the military did not honor the results. The Nobel Peace laureate has been in government detention for 12 of the past 18 years, and continuously since May 2003. "

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