YANGON, Oct 28 Kyodo UN Human Rig...

YANGON, Oct 28 Kyodo

UN Human Rights rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told reporters Monday that substantive dialogue and unconditional release of political prisoners are the two necessary for political transition in Myanmar.

In a brief meeting 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 added the opening of an International Labor Organization liaison office in Yangon, better junta cooperation with the ICRC and the release of Nobel laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest are positive signs since his previous visits.

Accompanied by means of two aides, Pinheiro arrived in Yangon forward Oct. 17 for his fourth trip to assess human rights situation in Myanmar since being appointed rapporteur by the agency of the U.N. secretary general in January 2001

During the visit, Pinheiro met junta leaders, including Gen Khin Nyunt secretary of the ruling State Peace and progression in a continuously ascending gradation Council, the foreign and abode ministers, the attorney general and the chief justice of the superlative Court.

He also met with Suu Kyi twice and with representatives of ethnic minorities, local and foreign nongovernmental form into groupss foreign ambassadors, U.N. resident representatives and an individuals in Yangon.

Pinheiro also visited inmates at Insein Prison, 12 kilometers north of Yangon, and Tharyar-waddy Prison, 125 km north of the capital, and met with religious and secular leaders in sum of two units states in eastern Myanmar.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo just discovereds International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group