Myanmar human rights situation challenging: UN envoy

Dharam Shourie

United Nations, Oct 9 (PTI) Terming the human rights
situation in Myanmar as challenging, a U.N. envoy has called
upon the military junta to conduct the 2010 general elections
in a "credible" manner.

"Respect for international human rights standards is
indispensable in paving the road to democracy," Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tomás
Ojea Quintana wrote in a report released Wednesday.

"The next step in the road map for national
reconciliation and democratic transition is the election in
2010," the U.N.s human rights envoy to the country said.

"Myanmar is going through a unique moment in its
political history," he said, noting that the country's new
Constitution was finalised in February and adopted through a
referendum in May.

He stressed that if those general elections are
prepared and conducted in an atmosphere in which human rights
were fully respected, "the process will be credible, resulting
in progressive achievement of democratic values."

Quintana proposes four core human rights elements to
be completed by the Government before the 2010 elections. The
first is to review and amend those domestic laws which limit
fundamental rights – such as freedom of expression, opinion,
peaceful assembly and association – and contravene the
new Constitution and international human rights standards.

"The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and
association, as well as the right to freedom of opinion and
expression, are fundamental rights to be respected in the
process towards the establishment of a solid and reliable
democracy," stated the Special Rapporteur.

Quintana also proposes the progressive release of
prisoners of conscience, of which there are more than 2,000
detained in different facilities around the country.

"Without the free participation of prisoners of
conscience, the very credibility of the general elections of
2010 would be at stake," he stressed, adding that prisoner
release would also reduce tension and inspire political
participation.

Last month the Myanmar authorities freed several
detainees as part of an amnesty procedure, including the
country's longest-serving political prisoner, U Win Tin, and
six other senior members of the National League for
Democracy (N.L.D.), whose leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains
under house arrest.

Quintana had welcomed the move, saying he hoped it
"would be the first in a series of releases of other prisoners
of conscience."

The transition to multi-party democratic and civil
government, as planned by the new Constitution, will require
"an intensive process of incorporating democratic values," the
Special Rapporteur notes.

Among the measures the Government should adopt are
repealing discriminatory legislation, continuing efforts to
respond to the aftermath of the deadly cyclone that struck the
country in early May, and avoiding the recruitment of child
soldiers.

He also suggests a number of changes for the country's
judiciary, which currently "is not independent and is under
the direct control of the Government and the military."

Quintana, who took up his post in May 2007, serves in
an independent and unpaid capacity and reports to the
Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, as do all Special
Rapporteurs.