Mizzima News

New Delhi (Mizzima) - United Nations Human Rights expert, Tomas Ojea Quintana, visited Burma's notorious Insein prison in Rangoon, on Monday. The ruling military junta uses the prison as the first-stop detention centre for many political prisoners.

The UN envoy, who began his second trip to Burma on Saturday, entered Insein prison at about 3:30 p.m (local time), an eyewitness said.

Meanwhile, even though it is still unclear whom Quintana would be meeting, the UN has said that he will seek meetings with political prisoners, during his prison visits.

"The UN envoy was escorted with heavy security guards. I saw two trucks loaded with soldiers, two light trucks full of police, followed by the UN envoy's car and a number of security vehicles following it. All of them went into Insein prison," the eyewitness said.

Security was also stepped up in and around the Insein prison compound, he added.

On Sunday, the UN envoy visited the Pa-an prison in Karen State, prison authorities confirmed. Sources in Myitkyina prison in Northern Burma's Kachin state also said they had been informed that Quintana would be paying a visit.

Burma currently has over 2,000 prisoners languishing in prisons across the country. The ruling junta, since August 2008, has begun sentencing political activists to long prison terms and has sent most of the prominent political prisoners to prisons in remote areas of the country.

Quintana is visiting Burma for the second time and will remain in the country until February 19. According to the UN, he will also seek meetings with other political parties, but Burma's main opposition party – the National League for Democracy – on Monday said they had not received any notification for a meeting.

"So far, we have still not received notice for any kind of meeting," Nyan Win, the NLD spokesperson, told Mizzima.