UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro yesterday met with top Myanmar junta officials as the Security Council said the generals must do more to ensure a dialogue with the opposition.
Pinheiro met with Myanmar Labor Minister Aung Kyi, who was appointed to liaise with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, an official said, but no details were immediately available.
In New York, UN Security Council President Marty Natalegawa, Indonesia's UN envoy, said they welcomed recent positive steps by the generals, but members had expressed concern "that many prisoners are still in jail and new arrests have occurred."
Pinheiro's mission to investigate the death toll and detentions from recent anti-government protests came as police continued to arrest leading activists.
Authorities seized a Buddhist monk who was a key leader of the massive anti-junta protests in September, exiled media groups and an activist said yesterday.
"U Gambira was arrested on 4th November, his family said. He was a leader of monks," said Aung Kyaw Oo, who works for the Thailand-based monitoring group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Monks were at the forefront of the protests, which began as demonstrations against a surprise hike in fuel prices in August and snowballed into the biggest anti-government demonstrations the junta has faced since 1988.
On Tuesday, police arrested labour rights campaigner Su Su Nway in Yangon as she posted anti-government leaflets, a source familiar with the matter said.
A pro-government blog said she was arrested along with a 25-year-old colleague named Bo Bo, while two others managed to escape.
Su Su Nway, 35, had been in hiding since leading a protest in Yangon in late August over the soaring fuel prices.
Human rights groups have called on Pinheiro to pressure the junta to release all political prisoners during his mission to investigate the deadly crackdown on the protests and other rights abuses.
The UN said he would be allowed to meet prisoners, following his meeting on Tuesday with Myanmar Home Affairs Minister Major-General Maung Oo.
"The special rapporteur was given assurances that he will be able to interview detainees, before the end of his mission, as requested," the UN said in a statement.
Amnesty International has estimated that 700 people arrested over the recent protests were still in detention, although the government said only 91 of the 3,000 originally rounded up were being held.
Pinheiro met yesterday with Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win and Labour Minister Aung Kyi, who is regarded as a moderate, after briefing diplomats and the local UN organization, a Myanmar official said.
He then met with Information Minister Brigadier General Kyaw Hsan but was unlikely to meet with the prime minister during this trip, which ends today.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’