U.N. Human Rights Council Sending Expert To Burma On Follow-Up Mission

Siddique Islam - AHN South Asia Correspondent

Geneva, Switzerland (AHN) -The United Nations Human Rights Council concluded its sixth session on Friday in Geneva. During the session, the 47-member body it adopted 13 resolutions and decisions.

One of those resolutions was a request that the independent expert on Burma, officially known as Myanmar, return to the South-East Asian nation for further assessments.

The Myanmar resolution, which was adopted by consensus, asks Special Rapporteur Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro to conduct a follow-up mission to look into the ongoing human rights violations there resulting from the violent repression of recent peaceful demonstrations in Burma, before the Council's next session in March 2008.

"Several reports of killings indicate that the figure provided by the authorities may greatly underestimate the reality," he wrote in a report presented to the Council earlier this week. Adding that, with at least 31 people having died during the crackdown by the government on protesters a few months ago - that is 16 more than had been acknowledged by the authorities.

Regarding Sudan, the Council adopted a resolution to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the African nation by one year. In a separate resolution, the body voiced concern that the country had not implemented the many recommendations of the Group of Experts, comprised of seven independent rights experts.

In particular, the Council said it was worried about the fact that perpetrators of past and ongoing human rights violations and international humanitarian law in the war-ravaged Darfur region have not been brought to justice.

More than 200,000 people have been killed in the area and at least 2.2 million others displaced since rebels began fighting government forces and allied militia known as the Janjaweed in 2003.