A U.N. human rights investigator has urged Myanmar to release its 2,100 or so political prisoners before holding next year's elections _ the country's first ballot in two decades.
In a report to be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday, Tomas Ojea Quintana said Myanmar's military-run government should release all "prisoners of conscience" _ starting with the elderly, the sick and political leaders _ because their detention breaches basic human rights.
"Release must be without imposing any particular condition which may result in new forms of diminishing enjoyment of human rights, such as written statements renouncing the right to political participation or campaign," Quintana said.
Prisoners who remain in custody should be spared cruel treatment and should be given better conditions and urgent medical treatment, he said.
Among those detained is Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held without trial for 13 of the past 19 years. Her pro-democracy movement won Myanmar's 1990 democratic elections, a result the military junta never recognized.
Quintana said he regretted that the government denied his request to meet with Suu Kyi and other detainees during his February visit to the country.
In the 41-page report, which was made available on the Web ahead of its presentation Tuesday, he called for "an urgent, impartial and independent review" of Suu Kyi's case.
Quintana also recommended other measures be taken in the run-up to next year's elections, including reform of the judiciary, a review of 380 laws that may breach international standards, an end to the recruitment of child soldiers, and end to use of anti-personnel mines and the abolition of forced labor.
