Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the United Nations human rights envoy, arrived in Burma yesterday to investigate alleged rights abuses during the ruling junta's crackdown on anti-government protests in September, writes Amy Kazmin in Bangkok.

Mr Pinheiro, whose previous visit to Burma in 2003 ended abruptly when he found that his interviews with prisoners were being bugged, has requested access to jails and detention centres and has pledged to try to determine how many people were killed and arrested in the crackdown.