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YANGON (AFP) – A UN envoy arrived in military-ruled Myanmar Monday to examine its progress on human rights ahead of elections, days after the junta freed a key aide to democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
Tomas Ojea Quintana expects to meet Foreign Minister Nyan Win but not reclusive junta head Than Shwe during his five-day trip, the third he has made to the isolated Southeast Asian nation since his appointment in 2008.
Quintana has said he also wants to meet Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, who has been detained for most of the past 20 years, but the ruling generals have not said if they will allow the Argentine diplomat to do so.
He arrived by commercial flight at Yangon airport and was taken to his hotel before meeting with UN staff, a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity.
The junta has so far agreed to a meeting between Quintana and four lawyers from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, according to an official and NLD party spokesman, also called 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.
Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Yangon but the junta on Saturday freed Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of her National League for Democracy party, who had been detained for the past seven years.
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 officials said Quintana would go outside the former capital Yangon and fly Monday to Sittwe, in Western Rakhine state, near the country's border with Bangladesh.
Quintana had meant to visit Myanmar back in November but his visit was repeatedly pushed back. He was appointed to his human rights role in May 2008 in the wake of a cyclone that left around 138,000 people dead.
On Thursday the envoy is due to return to Yangon to visit the country's notorious Insein prison where dozens of political dissidents are held, and later meet with representatives of ethnic groups.
Some ethnic groups along Myanmar's eastern border continue to wage armed opposition to the government.Quintana will go to the remote capital Naypyidaw to meet with senior government officials on Friday before leaving the country.
His trip comes as the junta sends out mixed signals to the international community, by responding to US efforts at engagement while at the same time continuing a crackdown on dissent ahead of this year's promised polls.
The junta has in the recent past exercised strict controls on all UN officials visiting the country, including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last year, who was refused access to Suu Kyi.
US officials have by contrast received a warm welcome since President Barack Obama's administration announced that it would pursue a dual track of engagement alongside sanctions.
Tin Oo, 83, said his release from seven years of detention at the weekend meant nothing without the freedom of Suu Kyi and the other 2,100 political detainees that the UN says are behind bars in Myanmar.
NLD leaders are yet to decide whether the party will take part in the elections.
The junta has not yet announced a date or issued laws for the polls, the first in Myanmar since elections in 1990 that were won by the NLD in a landslide but not recognised by the military government.
Suu Kyi's house arrest was extended in August by 18 months when she was convicted over an incident in which an American man swam to her house, effectively ruling her out of participation in the polls and sparking international outrage.
Tomas Ojea Quintana expects to meet Foreign Minister Nyan Win but not reclusive junta head Than Shwe during his five-day trip, the third he has made to the isolated Southeast Asian nation since his appointment in 2008.
Quintana has said he also wants to meet Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, who has been detained for most of the past 20 years, but the ruling generals have not said if they will allow the Argentine diplomat to do so.
He arrived by commercial flight at Yangon airport and was taken to his hotel before meeting with UN staff, a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity.
The junta has so far agreed to a meeting between Quintana and four lawyers from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, according to an official and NLD party spokesman, also called 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.
Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Yangon but the junta on Saturday freed Tin Oo, the elderly vice chairman of her National League for Democracy party, who had been detained for the past seven years.
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 officials said Quintana would go outside the former capital Yangon and fly Monday to Sittwe, in Western Rakhine state, near the country's border with Bangladesh.
Quintana had meant to visit Myanmar back in November but his visit was repeatedly pushed back. He was appointed to his human rights role in May 2008 in the wake of a cyclone that left around 138,000 people dead.
On Thursday the envoy is due to return to Yangon to visit the country's notorious Insein prison where dozens of political dissidents are held, and later meet with representatives of ethnic groups.
Some ethnic groups along Myanmar's eastern border continue to wage armed opposition to the government.Quintana will go to the remote capital Naypyidaw to meet with senior government officials on Friday before leaving the country.
His trip comes as the junta sends out mixed signals to the international community, by responding to US efforts at engagement while at the same time continuing a crackdown on dissent ahead of this year's promised polls.
The junta has in the recent past exercised strict controls on all UN officials visiting the country, including Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last year, who was refused access to Suu Kyi.
US officials have by contrast received a warm welcome since President Barack Obama's administration announced that it would pursue a dual track of engagement alongside sanctions.
Tin Oo, 83, said his release from seven years of detention at the weekend meant nothing without the freedom of Suu Kyi and the other 2,100 political detainees that the UN says are behind bars in Myanmar.
NLD leaders are yet to decide whether the party will take part in the elections.
The junta has not yet announced a date or issued laws for the polls, the first in Myanmar since elections in 1990 that were won by the NLD in a landslide but not recognised by the military government.
Suu Kyi's house arrest was extended in August by 18 months when she was convicted over an incident in which an American man swam to her house, effectively ruling her out of participation in the polls and sparking international outrage.