Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, is to visit Burma in the near future to thoroughly investigate the human rights abuses that have occurred during the recent crackdown on peaceful protest demonstrations and the alleged crimes committed by the SPDC. Pinheiro was appointed to this role as someone who had worked in the human rights arena in his native Brazil with a democratic government struggling to curb violence, following 21 years of violent military dictatorship.

Pinheiro has stated that he will go where he wants to go, and not be told where to go by the junta. He has been offered ‘full co-operation’. However, if he doesn’t get his own way his only option, as he admits himself, is to get the next plane out. But he will also draw his own conclusions about the level of assistance that the junta afford his visit – the first for many years.

Pinheiro has been the UN Special Rapporteur for long enough to know that the regime has used every trick in their arsenal to prevent him from entering Burma or discovering what is actually happening – then they can claim that he does not have the ‘facts’. The regime prefers the attitude taken by their friends in Beijing, of endorsing the preposterous lies published by the state media (both Xinhua and MNA).

Pinheiro receives numerous reports from Burma about the human rights situation and is well aware of both the absurd claims of the junta and the reports from the opposition. Pinheiro’s job can fall into three key objectives; (1) to ascertain the truth or falsity of various claims that have been made (10 dead or 1,000 ?), (2) to assess the extent of human rights abuse in Burma particularly over recent weeks (most observers agree that there is abuse, but the true extent must be established) and the condition of those detained, and (3) to gain some agreement from the junta for on-going international monitoring of the situation of the situation (including ICRC access to those detained) and greater involvement of the UN agencies in prompting and eliminating human rights abuse.

Professor Pinheiro has been critical of the regime’s human rights record on numerous occasions, as epitomised by his recent announcement to the UN Human Rights Council. He is a friend of the people of Burma and we wish him every success in discovering the truth; how many people died, how many detained and tortured, what has happened to the monks who have disappeared from the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay, what is happening in the manhunt throughout Burma?

The extent of other human rights abuses is myriad and well documented. Pinheiro has a very clear idea of what has been happening in Burma over the last few years and will have clear objectives in mind for his visit. With Gambari’s regional tour and ‘talks’ with DASSK, the regime are either up to their old tricks or beginning to feel the heat of international pressure. Let us support Pinheiro’s efforts as fully as possible and pray that the regime finally realise that their ‘game’ is up – they cannot continue to lie and behave in the way that they have been doing for so long. The time for truth has come.

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Bridging Activism and Policymaking

UN’s Pinheiro vows to go where he wants in Myanmar