YANGON, MYANMAR — A U.N. human-rights envoy entered Myanmar for the first time in four years Sunday on a mission to uncover how many people were killed and detained since September’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the U.N.’s independent rights investigator for Myanmar, has said he is determined to gain access to prisons and detention centers to probe allegations of abuse by the military regime.
Pinheiro had been barred from the country since November 2003 after he accused the junta of making “absurd” excuses to keep political opponents in prison.
Protestant militia renounces violence
DUBLIN, IRELAND — The largest Protestant paramilitary group in Northern Ireland renounced violence Sunday.
The outlawed Ulster Defense Association said it was disbanding all of its armed units and would store its weapons beyond the reach of rank-and-file members, but it was not yet willing to hand over its arsenal to international disarmament officials.
UDA representatives made the announcement in front of hundreds of supporters in a hard-line Protestant part of Belfast on Remembrance Sunday, the solemn British holiday that honors the dead from two world wars.
The UDA’s most prominent commander, Jackie McDonald, said the vast majority of people in the poorest Protestant districts of Belfast don’t want the UDA to disarm because they remain fearful that a new IRA generation could rearm and resume bloodshed. UDA guns “are the people’s guns,” he said.
Environmental fears follow tanker mishap
MOSCOW — A fierce Black Sea storm split a small tanker Sunday, causing an oil spill that could lead to significant environmental damage, officials said. At least four other cargo ships also sank in the storm, and several sailors were missing.
The tanker, the Volganeft- 139, was carrying 4,000 tons of fuel oil, and apparently at least 1,000 tons were discharged into the water, Russian transportation officials said.
Officials cautioned that it was still too early to assess the impact, but one Russian official said on Russian TV on Sunday that this spill could have considerable consequences because it involved fuel oil, which is heavy and thick.
Greeks say 275 illegal immigrants rescued
ATHENS, GREECE — The coast guard rescued 275 people believed to be illegal migrants crammed on a Turkish cargo ship Sunday that nearly capsized in rough seas southwest of the coast, a coast guard spokeswoman said.
The people on the ship, including dozens of women and children from Iraq, had been traveling for 13 days, en route to Italy. The captain, who is Turkish, and his 14-member crew were arrested and are facing charges linked to human smuggling.
The news media reported that some of the immigrants said they paid $2,000 each for their passage to Italy and $1,000 for each child.
Turkey charges troops freed by Kurds
ISTANBUL, TURKEY — Eight troops taken hostage by Kurdish rebels after a deadly ambush have been charged with neglecting their duty during the clash, a defense attorney said Sunday.
The Oct. 21 ambush, which killed 12 other soldiers, had increased pressure on the government to stage a cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq.
After being released, the soldiers told the court they had run out of ammunition and that some of their weapons were not working when the rebels took them hostage, their lawyer said.
