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Reuters-Envoy to report to UN on My



Subject: Reuters-Envoy to report to UN on Myanmar rights, democracy

Envoy to report to UN on Myanmar rights, democracy
02:37 a.m. Oct 30, 1998 Eastern

By David Brunnstrom

BANGKOK, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A top U.N. diplomat ended a mission aimed at
encouraging democracy and respect of human rights in military ruled Myanmar
on Friday and said a report would be made to the General Assembly late next
week.

U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto said he met opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi and senior figures of the ruling military council
during his trip, which coincided with a damning U.N. report on human rights
abuses in Myanmar.

De Soto declined to detail the results of his mission on his arrival in
Bangkok from the Myanmar capital Yangon.

``The mandate the secretary general has is a good offices mandate, and good
offices  almost by definition are conducted in a confidential manner,'' he
told Reuters.

His trip had been to help U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the exercise
of a General Assembly mandate ``to encourage authorities in Myanmar to
address concerns in the area of movement towards democracy and full respect
of human rights.''

De Soto said a report would be made to the assembly late next week.

In Yangon, de Soto also met Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, the intelligence
chief considered the most powerful figure in the ruling council.

No details have been released on his talks since he arrived in Yangon on
Tuesday,  although the government said his meeting with Khin Nyunt had been
``constructive and fruitful.''

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won Myanmar's last election in 1990,
but was not allowed to take office. It says the government has responded to
its demands for a parliament by detaining nearly 1,000 NLD members since
May.

Myanmar and U.N. officials have kept up a war of words in recent months over
human rights, in particular the treatment of Suu Kyi's party.

On Wednesday, a U.N. investigator released a report saying rights
violations, ranging from torture, rape and forced labour to the harassment
of opposition parties, persist in  Myanmar.

The situation had ``not evolved in any favourable way'' since an earlier
report on the matter in April, said Rajsoomer Lallah, a member of the U.N.
Human Rights Commission.

He said he remained ``deeply concerned'' about the harassment of politicians
and the large number of political prisoners.

Lallah said the violations, which included extrajudicial and arbitrary
executions, rape and forced labour, had been so numerous as to suggest they
were ``the result of policy at the highest level, entailing political and
legal responsibility.''

The government announced on Wednesday that NLD member Aung Min, 52, died of
cancer last week while in custody. It said it regretted his death at a
military hospital.

Eight years ago, senior NLD member Maung Ko died in custody during a high
profile visit by the U.N.'s Sadako Ogata, now U.N. high commissioner for
refugees, to check on rights abuses.

The military said Maung Ko committed suicide, but relatives said bruises on
his body showed he had been tortured to death.

Myanmar's Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw said last month the world had no right
to interfere in Myanmar's internal affairs when the government had ``chosen
the path of democracy.''

Pressure has been mounting on the generals in recent days.

Early this week, the European Union extended sanctions adopted in 1996.
However, it did not ban new investment or bar firms from providing services
to the ruling council.