Burma invites UN special rapporteur back

Pinheiro will join UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari who has been in the country pressing for progress in national reconciliation since the weekend.

"Pinheiro, welcomes the invitation by the authorities of Burma to visit the country from 11 to 15 November 2007," said the UN Information Centre in a statement out of Geneva.

In his capacity as special rapporteur Pinheiro made scant progress in dealing with Burmese military rulers. He has been barred from re-entry since 2003.

But the regime has been under growing international pressure to move forward with political reconciliation with the opposition and protection of basic human rights since it's brutal crackdown on monk-led protests on September 26-27, that left at least 10 dead, and others claim up to 200.

Gambari has been in Burma since Saturday and has vowed to stay on until real progress is achieved in the national reconciliation process.

On Tuesday, he met with three government ministers in the military's new capital of Naypyidaw, but he had yet to be granted an audience with the ruling junta's chief Senior General Than Shwe or opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, sources said.

Gambari, tasked with persuading Burma's military leaders to open a political dialogue with opposition leaders such as Suu Kyi and representatives of ethnic minority groups, has spent his first four days in Naypyidaw meeting government ministers.

On Tuesday he met with National Planning and Economic Development Minister Soe Tha, Religious Affairs Minister Brigadier General Thura Myint Maung and Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan.

He is scheduled to meet with diplomats who have flown to Naypyidaw, 350 kilometres north of Rangoon, on Wednesday, informed sources said.

Last September's army-led attacks on Buddhist monks and their laymen followers have again brought Burmese junta back into the limelight of international condemnation.

The UN dispatched Gambari to the country from September 29 to October 3, when he was granted interviews with Suu Kyi and military supremo Than Shwe.

Than Shwe at the time vowed to personally hold talks with Suu Kyi, provided she renounces her support for economic sanctions against the regime that were first put in place in 1988 after another army crackdown on demonstrations that left an estimated 3,000 people dead.

There is great skepticism that the military, which has ruled Myanmar for the past 45 years, has any intention of sharing power with civilian politicians in the near future.

Gambari, the third UN special envoy to Myanmar in eight years, faces a tough job in persuading Myanmar's xenophobic generals to initiate a dialogue which will ultimately loosen their iron grip on power.

On the eve of Gambari's arrival, the junta denied UN country chief Charles James Petrie a renewal of his visa, meaning he must depart immediately after the expiry of his current visa later this month.

Petrie's effective expulsion was reportedly prompted by a statement he issued on October 24, in which he said the September protests "clearly demonstrated the everyday struggle to meet basic needs and the urgent necessity to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country." 

The statement outraged Burma's military rulers, who have styled themselves the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).//DPA