UN envoy expresses hope for Myanmar

Larry Jagan, Foreign Correspondent
August 13. 2008

BANGKOK // The United Nations' new human rights envoy to Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, who made his first visit to the military-ruled country this month, is certain the regime is ready to co-operate with him.

Mr Quintana made his assumption based on his discussions about political prisoners with low-level figures in the junta.

"The prison conditions of the political prisoners I saw were reasonable," he said yesterday. While in Myanmar, he visited five renowned activists being held in Yangon's Insein prison, where most of Myanmar's political prisoners are held and, it is reported, abused and made to live in squalor.

Mr Quintana's assessment contrasted starkly with those of his predecessor, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who constantly said that although the circumstances for political prisoners had improved during his seven-year tenure as special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, the conditions remained appalling and unacceptable.

But Mr Quintana did seem to understand that conditions were far from adequate. One of the political prisoners complained that he had been denied dental care and, after Mr Quintana raised it with the prison authorities, a dentist was allowed to treat him.
The regime may be making some concessions to the human rights envoy. "Since [Mr] Quintana's visit political prisoners in Insein have had their food rations increased," said Bo Kyi, the head of an organisation in Thailand that promotes the cause of Myanmar's political prisoners.

However, since the uprising by monks in September, the human rights record in Myanmar, also sometimes known as Burma, has gone from bad to worse – including the conditions endured by political prisoners.
"Since the Red Cross stopped their prison visits, conditions have deteriorated – no soap to wash with, less food rations and no one to courier letters between them and their families," said Zin Linn, a former political prisoner now in exile in Thailand.

Representatives of the International Committee for the Red Cross suspended their prison visits more than two years ago because of government interference. "The best thing the new envoy can do is to urge the junta to allow the Red Cross to resume their prison visits as soon as possible," Zin Linn said.
Although the UN envoy was relatively upbeat about his first visit, he did accept that it was largely "an introductory mission – a 'getting to know you' trip", he said.

Now it is up to the generals to see where the process goes. But the omens are not good – Mr Quintana failed to meet any high-ranking officials of the government or military. He met the interior minster, the foreign minister and the labour minister, Aung Kyi – who is in charge of relations with the detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and has met with her five times in the past year. These ministers are limited in what they can accomplish and report to the top general, Than Shwe, who makes the decisions.
"My visit comes at a very important time in Burma – as it moves under the new constitution to civilian rule after the elections planned for 2010," the envoy said. "What is important now is the interim period, and I told the Burmese government that I planned to draw up a detailed proposal on how human rights issues should be treated and that I expected them to implement it."

More pie in the sky, according to Zin Linn. "The international community has been telling the junta now for more than 20 years to release political prisoners and stop human rights abuses without any appreciable success," he said. There are still more than 2,000 political prisoners languishing in Myanmar's prisons, according to Amnesty International, a human rights organisation based in London.
Although some political prisoners are periodically released, others are then detained, according Bo Kyi, a political activist. This week two members of parliament elected in the 1990 polls were detained by authorities. The pair belonged to Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, which won the 1990 election but was never allowed to form a government.

Mr Quintana did not try to see Ms Suu Kyi, on the grounds this was a sensitive issue best avoided on his first visit to Myanmar. But he did ask the military authorities to allow her to see her lawyer to discuss her detention.
It now seems clear that Ms Suu Kyi has had her house arrest extended for another year – until the end of May. Her detention order was renewed last May, but at the time it was unclear whether it was for six or twelve months.

Next May she will have been in detention for six years – which many legal experts in Myanmar believe is the maximum permitted under the regulation used to lock her up. The first time she was under house arrest she was freed in July 1995, a few days before the end of her sixth year under house arrest.
Ms Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 years of the past 19 under house arrest. Mr Quintana said he could not clarify the conditions of her detention, but planned to study her case and Myanmar law so he could discuss it fully with Myanmar authorities next time he visits.

That visit is planned for February, as Mr Quintana prepares for his submission to the UN Human Rights Council in March. The authorities seemed to be willing, he said, "but let's wait and see". Many of his predecessors, particularly Mr Pinheiro, found making follow-up missions virtually impossible. In the meantime, he is working on his report to the UN General Assembly in November.
ljagan@thenational.ae

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