U.N. envoy returns after 4-year ban

? A U.N. envoy who returned to Myanmar after a four-year ban visited a notorious prison for political prisoners Monday as he began investigating how many people were killed and detained in a crackdown on demonstrators.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the U.N.’s independent human rights investigator for Myanmar, spent at least two hours at the Insein prison in Yangon, which over the years has held numerous political prisoners. Many former inmates describe torture, abysmal conditions and long stretches in solitary confinement. Details of his visit were not known.

Pinheiro was invited Tuesday to meet with Cabinet ministers in the remote capital of Naypyitaw, 250 miles north of Yangon, as part of his probe, a government official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media.

He was expected to meet Myanmar’s foreign minister, the labor minister and the minister of home affairs, among others, the official said.

Pinheiro had said said he was determined to gain access to prisons and other sites to assess allegations of abuse. In March 2003, the envoy abruptly cut short a visit to Myanmar after finding a listening device in a prison room where he was interviewing political detainees.

Later that year, Pinheiro accused the ruling military junta of making “absurd” excuses to keep political opponents in prison. He had been barred from the country since November 2003.