Reuters-Alvaro de Soto will visit M

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Subject: Reuters-Alvaro de Soto will visit Myanmar

Myanmar says UN official to visit October 27
07:56 a.m. Oct 26, 1998 Eastern

YANGON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - United Nations assistant Secretary-General Alvaro
de Soto will make a four-day official visit to Myanmar from October 27, a
foreign ministry official said on Monday.

The official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters De Soto was likely
to meet Myanmar Foreign Minister Ohn Gyaw during the trip but said the rest
of his itinerary was unclear. De Soto is due to leave Myanmar on October 30.

Government sources declined to speculate on the purpose of the visit.

De Soto last visited Myanmar in January when he met the chairman of the
ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Than Shwe, the SPDC's
powerful Secretary One, Khin Nyunt, and the leader of the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar and U.N. officials have kept up a war of words in recent months over
the country's human rights record.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson called earlier this
month for the release of all political prisoners held in Myanmar and urged
the military government to halt its ``repression'' of the opposition.

She said she had received ``no satisfactory response'' on the issue of human
rights when she raised the matter with Ohn Gyaw in New York in September.

In August, Myanmar refused a request by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to
receive a special U.N. emissary to discuss political developments in the
country.

Ohn Gyaw said last month the world had no right to interfere in his
country's internal affairs when the government had ``chosen the path of
democracy.''

But human rights groups say Myanmar's ruling generals have made no progress
towards democracy since they refused to recognise the results of the
country's last general election in May 1990, which was won overwhelmingly by
the NLD.

They accuse Yangon of massive human rights abuses, including the use of
forced labour, arbitrary detentions and summary executions. Yangon denies
the charges.