UN investigator says number of political prisoners in Myanmar larger than government says

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro visited Myanmar for five days this month to look into allegations of abuse by the ruling military junta and to determine how many people were killed or detained in the September crackdown on a series of pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.

Security forces killed at least 15 people and detained nearly 3,000 protesters, according to information Myanmar authorities provided to Pinheiro. Diplomats and dissidents say the death toll was much higher.

The regime has said it has since released most of the detainees, but Pinheiro said Tuesday that the government's claim that only 93 people remain in detention is most likely not true.

"I don't think this number corresponds to reality," Pinheiro told an audience at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, where he is a visiting professor. "Ninety three is too low. I think it's a larger number of people continuing in detention."

He declined to provide his own tally and said he expects to give a more detailed report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva next month.

Pinheiro has said at least 15 people died in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, a number based on post-mortem reports and other official information. He has said he was continuing to investigate the overall number of deaths and did not provide an updated count on Tuesday.

He said in an interview after his speech that he was still looking into whether monks were among those killed.

Images of peaceful demonstrations being met with violence sparked "universal revulsion" and that the international community has the opportunity to seize on that outrage and create positive change, Pinheiro told The Associated Speech after his talk.

"The attention of the concerned countries is very short," he said. "My fear is that all the scenes of these marches, these demonstrations, will soon be forgotten, and then we will lose an opportunity."

He said the crisis in Myanmar required "quiet diplomacy" as well as support and coordination from other countries.

"The international community has to prove some effectiveness, some competence - to talk less and to act more effectively," he said.

Pinheiro's visit to Myanmar was his first since being banned from entering the country in November 2003. During his most recent trip, he visited a prison for political detainees and a Buddhist monastery that had been raided by troops.

But he said his five-day visit was too short to be considered a full-fledged fact-finding mission. He also said he was allowed only limited access to the country and was not able to verify key information.

"You are supposed to have free access," he said. "You control your own agenda. This was very much organized by the country, the government."

The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962, crushing periodic rounds of dissent. It held elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power to the democratically elected government.

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