Analysis: Burma's new approach
source : BBC
By Southeast Asia analyst Larry Jagan
Burma's military government has said the newly-appointed United Nations rapporteur on human rights will be allowed to visit the country next week. It is the first visit by a UN human rights expert in almost five years.The previous rapporteur was denied access to the country and resigned last year.
Since his appointment two months ago, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro has kept a low-profile. Unlike his predecessors, he has not held extensive discussions with diplomats, nor consulted human rights activists or Burmese opposition figures.UN sources say he has taken a discreet approach to his mission. He is due to visit Burma early next week.
Resolution ahead
Although no details of his schedule are available, he is expected to meet Burma's military leaders and the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still under house arrest.
The visit is intended to provide the rapporteur with a chance to assess first-hand the Burmese situation before the Human Rights Commission discusses a resolution on Burma next month. The UN has confirmed that Mr Pinheiro will address the commission late next week.
Mr Pinheiro's predecessor, Rajsoomer Lallah was never allowed to visit Burma, although the two previous envoys, Professor Yozo Yokata and Mrs Sadako Ogata were given access. Mr Pinheiro has also not adopted his predecessors' practice of widely consulting the leaders and representatives of Burma's ethnic minorities. Instead he has been discussing Burma with many of Asia's leaders.
Regional anxiety
He has held talks with Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. As a result, UN sources in Geneva say, the resolution to be discussed at the Human Rights Commission in a fortnight's time will have a lot of Asian input.
It is likely to be strongly critical of Burma's human rights situation while praising the junta's efforts to talk to Aung San Suu Kyi about the country's political future.
Western diplomats in Asia believe that Burma's neighbours, the countries in the regional grouping Asean, are increasingly anxious that Burma's record does not impede relations with Europe and the United States. There is also growing embarrassment that Burma has made little progress towards democracy in the past four years since it joined Asean.
Peer pressure
Some countries like Singapore are concerned that most business ventures in Burma have not been profitable, and that capital invested in the country cannot be repatriated.
The Thais remain primarily concerned about the drugs trade in Burma, which has resulted in ever-increasing numbers of drug addicts in Thailand.
Many analysts believe it is pressure from its neighbours, particularly the Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad, which has contributed to the Burmese generals taking a more conciliatory approach to Aung San Suu Kyi. There have been ongoing talks between the two sides since October. These talks have been held in complete secret. And with little concrete information coming out of Burma it is difficult to know how they are progressing. There has only been one confirmed face-to-face meeting between the intelligence chief Lt General Khin Nyunt and Aung San Suu Kyi.
There is no doubt that the military authorities are keen to exploit the situation and represent any movement to their advantage.
Hint of change
At recent official occasions, including last week's Army Day, the country's leader General Than Shwe has hinted at the thaw in relations with Aung San Suu Kyi. He has even suggested that in the long-run democracy may even a desirable form of government.
But there is no doubt that Burma's military will not be rushed into introducing multi-party democracy.
After all, they established a National Convention to draw up a new constitution which appears to be no closer to finishing its task than it was when it started eight years ago.
While analysts are seeing Mr Pinheiro's trip to Rangoon as further evidence that the Burmese military is adopting a more conciliatory approach to the outside world, there signs it is not going as far as it would like the international community to believe.
Although the human rights rapporteur has been given access to Burma, diplomatic sources say a further visit by the UN special envoy Dr Razali Ismail has been refused.
Sources close to the envoy believe Rangoon was upset by Dr Razali's attempt to get the ethnic minorities involved in tripartite talks with the generals and Aung San Suu Kyi.
If this is the case the international community needs to be careful in how far it endorses Burma's ruling military's new found flexibility.