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REUTERS_1.4.96: AI RAISES CONCERN A



Subject: REUTERS_1.4.96: AI RAISES CONCERN ABOUT VIOLENCE IN BURMA

	ASIA: BURMA ARMY SHOOTING UNARMED CIVILIANS - AMNESTY
BURMA RIGHTS
   BANGKOK, April 1 Reuter - Burmese security forces and a rebel 
splinter faction allied to the government army continue to commit 
gross violations of human rights in southeastern Burma's Karen 
state, human rights group Amnesty International said.
	   In a report received by Reuters today the London-based group 
said Karen civilians fleeing from troops were frequently shot dead 
while others were executed because of suspected links with a Karen 
guerrilla group fighting Rangoon for autonomy.
	   The rights group said Burmese authorities were also forcibly 
relocating villages to the vicinity of government-controlled towns, 
apparently in a bid to cut all links between civilians and Karen 
National Union (KNU) rebels.
	   "Security forces continue to commit gross human rights 
violations with impunity," Amnesty International said.
	   "The catalogue of these violations is extensive. The Burmese 
army ... has killed unarmed civilians as part of its 
counter-insurgency campaigns against the KNU ... Karen civilians 
who were fleeing from troops as they aproached a village have been 
shot dead in what appears to be a de facto shoot to kill policy of 
anyone who runs," the rights group said.
	   "Others have been killed reportedly because the (Burmese troops) 
suspected these individuals of supporting the KNU in some way.
	   "The army has killed still other victims seemingly at random in 
an apparent effort to terrorise villagers into severing their 
alleged connections with KNU soldiers," it said.
	   The KNU has been fighting a war for regional autonomy for the 
past 47 years from bases along the Thai-Burma border.
	   Amnesty also said a Karen rebel splinter faction, which broke 
away from the KNU in December 1994 and allied itself with the 
Burmese army, was responsible for human rights abuses against Karen 
civilians in Burma and Karen refugees in camps just inside 
Thailand.
	   The rights group said the faction, known as the Democratic Karen 
Buddhist Army (DKBA), killed and abducted dozens of Karen civilians 
from camps in Thailand in an apparent effort to force the refugees 
back to areas under its control in Burma.
	   Burmese military authorities have denied having any control over 
the DKBA, but Thai officers on the border have said they 
intercepted radio traffic indicating the Burmese contact and 
supervise the faction.
	   Meanwhile, DKBA gunmen captured and executed a dissident Burmese 
student in southeastern Burma, his colleagues said today.
	   The students, members of a dissident group opposed to Burma's 
military government, said five of their colleagues travelled into 
Karen state to contact forestry workers there and were captured by 
DKBA members on March 27.
	   One of the students was executed later that day while the other 
four managed to escape and fled back to Thailand, their colleagues 
told reporters on the border.
	   REUTER sl
 

	ASIA: KARENNI REBELS ABANDON LAST POSITION AFTER ATTACK
BURMA FIGHTING
   BANGKOK, April 1 Reuter - Several hundred Karenni guerrillas in 
eastern Burma abandoned their last stronghold over the weekend 
after a three-day offensive by Burmese government forces, Thai 
police and rebel sources said today.
	   Thai security forces were deployed along a stretch of the 
Thai-Burma border in northwestern Mae Hong Son province to prevent 
any spillover of the fighting after the guerrillas pulled out of a 
hilltop base just inside Burma, a Thai border police officer said.
	   "We had to abandon our position after three consecutive days of 
heavy shelling," a Karenni guerrilla officer told reporters on the 
border.
	   He said the about 400 guerrillas who abandoned the camp broke up 
into small groups and would wage guerrilla warfare against the 
Burmese army.
	   The guerrilla source said at least 20 Burmese soldiers were 
killed over several days of fighting. Three guerrillas were killed 
and twelve others wounded.
	   The separatist rebels agreed to a ceasefire with the government 
in March a year ago but the truce collapsed several months later 
after Rangoon forces moved into the small Karenni zone in what the 
rebels said was a violation of the agreement.
	   The Karenni guerrilla force, fighting for a separate state since 
shortly after Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948, is 
one of only a handful of guerrilla groups still fighting the 
central government.
	   The Rangoon military government has reached ceasefire agreements 
with 16 rebel forces since 1989 -- most recently the surrender of 
opium warlord Khun Sa and his powerful Shan force in January in the 
Golden Triangle region where the borders of Burma, Laos and 
Thailand meet.  REUTER  ts