YANGON - China called on Myanmar to speed up democratic reforms, state media reported Saturday -- an unusual move for Beijing, which has traditionally refrained from criticizing the military regime.
The call came as a U.N. human rights investigator wrapped up a trip to the country that he said had helped him to determine that at least 15 people died during the junta's crackdown on pro-democracy protests in September.
China's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi also expressed support for U.N. attempts to reconcile the regime and the suppressed democracy movement during a two-day meeting with the junta that ended Friday. The state-controlled New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported the meeting only after Wang had left the country.
China, a communist country whose own record on democratic reforms and human rights has been criticized, is one of Myanmar's largest trading partners and its main political ally.
Beijing does not usually publicly criticize Myanmar's military government, a reflection of its position of strict noninterference in the internal affairs of the country.
But in recent weeks, it has been credited with working behind the scenes to pressure Myanmar to embrace democratic reforms after the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations.
China also provided important backing for the mission of Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N. secretary general's special envoy on Myanmar, by supporting a Security Council declaration and helping persuade Myanmar to allow him to visit twice.
As Wang's visit ended Friday, U.N. human rights investigator Paulo Sergio Pinheiro announced that at least 15 people died in Myanmar's biggest city when the military crushed the demonstrations, five more than the government had acknowledged.
"This is just in Yangon," Pinheiro said. "The government has not told me all the casualties in the country."
He said numbers were based on post-mortems and other official information, adding that he would continue seeking relevant information from other sources.
It was the first trip the junta allowed the Brazilian professor to make to the country in four years.
Pinheiro said he would give as complete an accounting as possible to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on Dec. 11.
Myanmar's military government has said 10 people were killed when troops opened fire on crowds of peaceful protesters in late September. Diplomats and dissidents, however, said the death toll was much higher.
Pinheiro said the authorities gave him post-mortem reports on 14 people whose bodies had been sent from Yangon General Hospital to be cremated. He said the 15th known fatality in the crackdown was Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai, who was shot dead by security forces.
Pinheiro was allowed to meet with several prominent political prisoners at Yangon's infamous Insein Prison during his trip. He described the facility, which holds about 10,000 prisoners, as being "old and overcrowded."
The government has said it detained almost 3,000 people during crackdown and that most of them have been released, but many prominent political activists remain in custody.
