BBC-Australian rights commissioner

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Subject: BBC-Australian rights commissioner to visit Burma 

Friday, July 30, 1999 Published at 10:07 GMT 11:07 UK

BBC-World: Asia-Pacific

Australian rights commissioner to visit Burma

Australian officials say the country's human rights commissioner, Chris
Sidoti, will visit Burma next week.

He will investigate the possibility of setting up Burma's first national
human rights commission.

The visit was agreed at talks on the sidelines of the ASEAN conference in
Singapore last week.

The Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, described it as only the
first step in an incremental process to improve Burma's human rights record.

>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service