UNITED NATIONS—Myanmar has agreed to a visit by the United Nations expert on human rights there, who has not been allowed into the country for four years, U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said on Monday.
In a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday, Foreign Minister Nyan Win suggested that the visit by special rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro take place before a summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), scheduled to open on Nov. 17 in Singapore, Montas told a news briefing.
Pinheiro, a Geneva-based Brazilian law professor who reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council, visited Myanmar six times after being asked to check on its human rights performance in 2000. But he has not been allowed back since November 2003, despite repeated requests.
"The government of Myanmar has confirmed that it has agreed to the visit" by Pinheiro, Montas said.
Pinheiro welcomed the development. "I am very glad. It's positive news," he told Reuters.
"It's an important sign that the government wants to engage again in constructive dialogue with the U.N. and the Human Rights Council," he said by telephone from Rhode Island, where he is participating in an academic panel at Brown University.
Myanmar's ruling military junta has come under pressure to make concessions to the outside world since it cracked down on pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks last month. It allowed a visit by U.N. Myanmar envoy Ibrahim Gambari at that time and is being pushed to admit him again quickly.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said Washington was working with Ban and with countries such as China, India and the members of ASEAN to get Gambari back to Myanmar as soon as possible.
"It's urgent that Mr. Gambari be allowed to come into Burma," Khalilzad told reporters, adding that he should go before the mid-November date already agreed to by Myanmar.
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