AFP/File – File photo of Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar. …

YANGON (AFP) – A UN special envoy arrived in Myanmar Monday for talks about its progress on human rights ahead of elections, days after the military regime freed a key aide to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Tomas Ojea Quintana is set to meet government and opposition figures but there are no plans yet for him to encounter either Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi or reclusive junta head Than Shwe during his five-day trip.

Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Yangon but the regime on Saturday freed Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of her National League for Democracy (NLD), who welcomed Quintana’s visit on Monday.

“If the UN human rights envoy can come and meet and cooperate with us frequently, things can be resolved,” Tin Oo told reporters Monday during his first visit to the party headquarters since his release at the weekend.

“It is beneficial if he comes. He should come,” he said, after announcing his return to the political stage to 100 cheering supporters.

Tin Oo had been detained since 2003, following his arrest with Suu Kyi, after a pro-regime mob attacked their motorcade during a political tour in May that year, killing 70 people.

His release and Quintana’s visit come ahead of elections promised by the junta at some point in 2010, the first in Myanmar for two decades, although the regime has failed to set a date.

NLD leaders are yet to decide whether the party will take part in the elections.

The government has so far agreed to a meeting between Quintana and four NLD lawyers during his visit, according to an official and to NLD party spokesman Nyan Win.

“We four lawyers will meet with Mr Quintana this evening…. We do not know the reason. It’s their proposal. I still do not know yet whether the envoy will meet with the NLD party,” Nyan Win said.

Quintana arrived by commercial flight at Yangon airport on his third trip to Myanmar since his appointment in 2008 and was taken to his hotel before meeting UN staff, a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity.

The Argentinean would fly late Monday to Sittwe, in Western Rakhine state, near the border with Bangladesh.

On Thursday the envoy is due to return to Yangon to visit the notorious Insein prison where dozens of political dissidents are held, and later meet representatives of ethnic groups.

He will go to the remote capital Naypyidaw to meet with senior government officials including the foreign minister, also called Nyan Win, on Friday before leaving the country.

Quintana has said that he wants to meet Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years since the NLD won elections in 1990 and was prevented from taking power by the military.

In a statement issued last week ahead of his five-day visit, Quintana said 2010 was “a critical time for the people of Myanmar”.

“It would be important for me to meet with political party leaders in the context of this year’s landmark elections,” he said. “I hope that my request to the government to meet with… Aung San Suu Kyi will be granted this time.”

Myanmar’s junta has in the recent past exercised strict controls on all visiting UN officials, including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who last year was refused access to Suu Kyi.

US officials have by contrast received a warm welcome in recent months since President Barack Obama’s administration announced that it would pursue a dual track of engagement alongside sanctions.

Tin Oo, 83, earlier said his release meant nothing without the freedom of Suu Kyi and the other 2,100 political detainees that the UN says are behind bars in Myanmar.

He said Monday he would write to the authorities to request a meeting with Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi’s house arrest was extended in August by 18 months when she was convicted over an incident in which a US man swam to her house, effectively ruling her out of participation in the polls and sparking global outrage.