Human rights expert to visit Burma: UN

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

Burma 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, UN spokeswoman Michele Montas says.

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 Southeast Asian Nations scheduled to open on November 17, Montas told a news briefing.

Pinheiro, a Geneva-based Brazilian law professor who reports to the UN Human Rights Council, visited Burma 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.

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