The United Nations human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro arrived in military-ruled Burma on Sunday to investigate the excessive use of force and other alleged rights abuses during the ruling junta’s violent suppression of mass anti-government protests in September.

Mr Pinheiro – whose last visit to Burma in 2003 ended abruptly when he discovered his ostensibly confidential interviews with prisoners were bugged – has requested access to prisons and detention centres, and has pledged to try to determine how many people were killed and arrested in the crackdown.