The United Nations will discuss Burma's appalling human rights record at its annual meeting in Geneva in mid-March, including allegations that Burmese soldiers routinely rape ethic women along the border with Thailand.
In the meantime, in an effort to deflect criticism, Burma has welcomed the human rights group Amnesty International, which arrived in Rangoon to investigate the human rights situation there. This is the first time the UK-based human rights organisation has been allowed into the country.
The Amnesty delegation will meet government ministers, leaders of the pro-democracy opposition, UN officials and NGOs while there.
"It's an initial visit and no major report is expected to emerge from the trip,'' according to sources in Amnesty.
"Amnesty International has been invited to Burma to see current developments in the area of human rights in the country,'' said a senior Burmese government official.
The two Amnesty investigators will spend 10 days in Burma meeting government officials and representatives of other relevant organisations.
But they are also expected to meet the leader of the opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, and representatives of many of the countries ethnic groups.
Amnesty is wary of making any of the details of its trip public, for fear it might jeopardise the success of the mission.
"Amnesty International's delegates were granted visas to Burma and will hold a press conference in Bangkok after their visit. Until then, AI has no comments to make on its mission to Burma,'' the organisation's press officer said.
According to sources in Amnesty, it is a preliminary visit and its main priority is to inform Burma's military rulers of the organisation's purpose and work.
Apart from that, the delegation will spend much of its time looking at Burma's laws and legal system.
Diplomats in Rangoon described it as a confidence-building trip.
The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma, Professor Paulo Pinheiro, said he welcomed the Amnesty visit and saw it as concrete evidence that the regime was serious about engaging the international community in a dialogue on the issue of human rights.
"This dialogue will be able to help the promotion of human rights in Burma, and bring hope to the victims of abuses in the near future _ and that is what really counts _ as well as benefit the work of international NGOs in Burma.''
For the Burmese military government, it is certainly a major publicity coup.
Amnesty International has been one of the most strident critics of the military regime's abuse of human rights, ever since the army seized power more than 14 years ago.
'The generals are hoping that by inviting Amnesty and engaging them in a dialogue on human rights, they can convince the international community that they are serious about improving their human rights record and introducing democratic reform,'' said a senior Western diplomat.
Nevertheless, Rangoon's invitation to Amnesty is a significant gesture on the part of Burma's military rulers.
"I would like to praise both Burma and Amnesty for this bold decision _ it is consistent with the coherent and principled policy of engagement that I have been proposing,'' said Mr Pinheiro, the UN rapporteur.
Over the past few years, international bodies like the International Red Cross, the International Labour Organisation and the UN Human Rights Commission have all engaged the regime on issues related to human rights. As a result, some progress has indeed been made.
This interaction between the Burmese military and the international agencies has brought some positive results according to Mike Jendrzejczyk, the spokesman for US-based Human Rights Watch Asia.
"There have been some limited but important improvements, including the release of political prisoners, improved humanitarian treatment of some prisoners, and commitments and decrees to end forced labour, though implementation remains a major problem,'' he said.
But it will take more than this single mission to do that. There is very little the Amnesty team can expect to do in the short space of time they will have in Burma, other than familiarise themselves with the situation first-hand and introduce themselves to key members of the government.
Many democracy activists outside the country fear that Amnesty is being used to help deflect criticism of the junta's lack of progress on human rights at the annual UN hearings which begin in Geneva in mid-March.
The UN rapporteur on human rights will visit Burma again on a follow-up mission prior to reporting to the Geneva meeting.
Diplomats in Rangoon say that it would be unfair to expect too much to come from Amnesty's initial visit to Rangoon.
But they believe any serious exposure the country's senior military commanders get to human rights issues can only help.
'I expect AI will make a major push for the release of many more political prisoners, an end to serious abuses in ethnic minority areas, and adoption of other recommendations by Amnesty and the UN,'' said Human Rights Watch Asia spokesman. "Any progress along those lines would be very welcome.''
Larry Jagan is a freelance writer based in Bangkok, who specialises on Burma. Until recently, he was the news and current affairs editor for Asia and the Pacific for the BBC World Service.