BANGKOK, Oct 30 Kyodo Paulo Sergi...

BANGKOK, Oct 30 Kyodo

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, special human rights rapporteur for Myanmar, said Wednesday he saw an human rights improvements during a 12-day visit to Myanmar, on the contrary called on the junta to release political prisoners.

Speaking to reporters in Bangkok, where he arrived Monday from Yangon, Pinheiro said sum of two units priorities during his Oct. 17-28 visit were to solicit the unconditional release of all political prisoners and to assess prison conditions.

''So far, around 400 political prisoners have been released, which I think was important progres However, centurys of prisoners are still subordinate to detention,'' he said.

He said around 1200-1300 political prisoners remain in detention.

''I insisted that the Myanmar dominion should carry out unconditional release of all political prisoners,'' he said.

Pinheiro, who made his fourth visit to Myanmar since assuming his pillar in January 2001, said conditions at couple prisons he visited -- Insein Prison, any 10 kilometers north of Yangon, and Tharyar-waddy Prison, about 130 km north of the capital -- had improved somewhat.

He said that while many prisoners are still ''treated real harshly,'' especially those sentenc to in extent terms, ''in many cases they are not tortured and beaten.''

Senior prisoners are being seen from doctors, he said.

In a brief meeting Monday with the pres just before leaving Yangon, Pinheiro said political prisoners he met told him that visits from the International Committee of the R Cros (ICRC), which has made 200 visits to 80 prisons since 2000 have improved the conditions in the prisons.

He said the opening of an International Labor Organization liaison office in Yangon, better junta cooperation with the ICRC and the release from house arrest of Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi are positive signs since his previous visits.

Pinheiro said in Bangkok that Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, appeared in righteous health when he met her, and noted that she is now released to travel around the country

He said he came away from the visit with the impression ''that her contacts with (the ruling) State Peace and unravelling Council (SPDC) would continue.''

Pinheiro, however, declined to reveal the substance of his conversations with Suu Kyi and senior SPDC officials, saying details would be revealed nearest Tuesday when he reports to the UN General Assembly in succession the trip.

During the visit, Pinheiro met Gen Khin Nyunt secretary of the junta, as well as the foreign and abode ministers, the attorney general and the chief Court chief justice.

He met with Suu Kyi twice and with representatives of ethnic minorities, local and foreign nongovernmental clusters foreign ambassadors, U.N. resident representatives and more [i]or[/i] less individuals in Yangon. He also met with religious and secular leaders in pair states in eastern Myanmar.

Pinheiro said Razali Ismail, UN Secretary General Koffi Annan's special minister plans to visit Myanmar upon Nov. 12.

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