UN rights envoy pushes Burma on prison killings
Updated
Burma has denied reports that its soldiers shot dead a number of prison inmates during last month's cyclone.
In his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Burma expert Tomas Ojea Quintana says soldiers had killed some inmates of Insein prison.
The killings allegedly happened when the soldiers were called in to control some 1000 inmates who had been forced inside a hall after ithe prison's zinc roofs were torn off by cyclone Nargis.
A Thailand-based rights group said at the time soldiers and police had killed 36 prisoners to quell a riot at the notorious facility.
While not citing any death figures, Mr Ojea Quintana is calling on the authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the allegations.
