U.N. envoy visit constructive: junta

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE, APRIL 6. A three-day visit by the United Nations human rights envoy, Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, to Myanmar, has been described ``constructive'' by the Foreign Ministry in Yangon.

In a sign that the military Government is more amenable to cooperation with the rest of the world, the Foreign Ministry said: ``We consider the visit of Mr. Pinheiro as constructive. We have cooperated with him to our utmost''.

Mr. Pinheiro, who met with the National League for Democracy general secretary, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, was permitted to visit the NLD headquarters for talks with senior party leaders.

Mr. Pinheiro's predecessor as U.N. rights' envoy, Mr. Rajsoomer Lallah, was bitterly critical of the military regime. Mr. Lallah, who resigned his job last year, was never given permission to visit Myanmar. Reports from Yangon said that Mr. Pinheiro, a Brazilian academic, had adopted a non-confrontational approach towards the military Government, a posture which must have pleased the Generals in Yangon. In his three-day visit, which concluded on Thursday, the Brazilian also met with Secretary-I, Lt. Gen. Khin Nyunt, the powerful intelligence chief and regarded as the architect of a more open-minded approach.

Interestingly, Mr. Pinheiro was permitted to travel outside the capital to a controversial gas pipeline project, whose construction has invited opprobrium from the human rights' advocates.

There is little doubt that first-hand visits of the kind undertaken by the envoy would help both the international community and the military junta understand each other better.

In the past, there has been little or no communication between an inward-looking military regime and the international community.

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Section  : International
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