Rights envoy allowed back in

A United Nations human rights envoy was allowed into military-ruled Myanmar for the first time in four years on a mission to determine how many people have been killed or detained since the start of a crackdown on democracy activists.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the U.N.’s independent rights investigator for Myanmar, says he is determined to gain access to the country’s prisons as part of an investigation of allegations of abuse by the military junta.

He submitted a proposed itinerary to the junta before his five-day visit, but it was still being “fine-tuned,” said Aye Win, a U.N. spokesman in Myanmar.

Pinheiro cut short a visit in March 2003 after finding a listening device in a room at a prison where he was interviewing political detainees. Later that year, he accused the junta of making “absurd” excuses to keep political opponents in prison. He has been barred from Myanmar, also known as Burma, since November 2003.