United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro is due to arrive here later on Sunday on a five-day visit to Myanmar to look into the human rights situation in the country.
Agreed by the Myanmar government following an urgent appeal of the 47-nation Human Rights Council, Pinheiro came back to Myanmar for the first time in four years since he last visited the country in November 2003. He was denied entry visa since then until his present return.
The UN Human Rights Council has urged an immediate investigation of the rights situation in Myanmar.
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.
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 reform under its seven-step roadmap and strive for national reconsolidation in cooperation with the UN, while detained political party leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is General Secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD), pledged readiness to cooperate with the government to make the process of a dialogue a success in the interest of the nation according to her statement issued by Gambari on behalf of her on Thursday.
On Friday, a day after Gambari concluded his six-day second mission to Myanmar, Myanmar Liaison Minister U Aung Kyi met twice with Aung San Suu Kyi at the State Guest House in Yangon for a second round of talks since the first on Oct. 25. More meeting between Aung San Suu Kyi and three of her NLD Central Executive Committee (CEC) members and a party spokesman was allowed to take place at the same guest house on the same day.
After Pinheiro's present five-day visit, Gambari is expected to make a come back for the third time in the next few weeks as invited by the government to help initiate a substantive dialogue and promote national reconciliation, according to the UN Information Center.
Meanwhile, according to official sources, an agreement between Myanmar and the UN has also been reached to mandate a person as an acting resident representative of UN agencies.
Source: Xinhua
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