GENEVA (AFP) – The UN human rights expert on Myanmar said Friday that he had not been issued a promised visa to visit the country on a fact-finding mission.

A statement in the afternoon from the UN said that special rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro “announced that he had received the information that his passport was ready to be picked up.

“Later in the afternoon, he learned that no visa had been issued in his passport.”

The dramatic U-turn came after Pinheiro’s initial surprise during a morning press conference when he was slipped a note indicating that his visa was to be delivered.

“I have good news for you (…) Today the visa has been issued and my passport will be returned this afternoon,” Pinheiro told journalists in Geneva then. “That’s a wonderful surprise.”

The outspoken Brazilian diplomat and legal scholar — who leaves the post at the end of the month after eight years — had mocked Myanmar’s claims it was committed to democratic reform.

“If you believe in gnomes, in trolls and in elves, you can believe in this process of democracy in Myanmar,” he had said.

In a report to the Human Rights Council this week, the special rapporteur said around 1,850 political prisoners were behind bars as of January in Myanmar, and that the government had “accelerated” unlawful arrests.

He added that he had continued to get reports of arrests made in relation to sweeping anti-government demonstrations last year, as well as allegations of abuse relating to the arrests.

“There’s a contradiction between what the government says that it is doing and what is really happening,” he said.

“Despite all the attention to the terrible crackdown, the government did not pay any attention to the Security Council nor the Human Rights Council” which had both condemned last year’s violent crackdown on dissent.

While he said he did not expect rapid change, “the problem with this country is that they don’t even give small concessions. I’m always asking for small concessions, but they are not able to do that.”

Although the government said it wants multi-party elections “they excluded so many people from the election that I don’t know who will be able to participate,” Pinheiro said.