Amnesty condemns Burma human rights

[082903@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

		Amnesty condemns Burma human rights
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	Bangkok: Burma's ruling junta has targeted ethnic minorities with 
forced labour, forced relocations, arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial 
killings, torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International said yesterday.

	Human rights violations also affected ethnic Burmese, who 
constitute the majority in Burma, and included rape, confiscation of food 
and domestic animals, imposition of arbitrary taxes, and the burning of 
villages, the human rights watchdog said.

	The abuses continued, Amnesty said, although its Myanmar: Human 
Rights Violations Against Ethnic Minorities report, to be released today, 
dealt mostly with events last year in the eastern Mon and Shan States and 
Tenasserim division.

	Ethnic minorities have been seized to serve for arbitrary periods 
as porters for the army on a widespread basis, subject to torture and 
ill-treatment at the whim of soldiers who often suspected they supported 
opposition groups, Amnesty reported.

	"Types of ill-treatment included repeated beatings with bamboo 
sticks or rifle butts, and deprivation of food, water, rest, and medical 
treatment," and repeated rape, sometimes ending in the death of the 
victims, the report said.

	"Others... have been extrajudically killed if they attemped to 
escape or were unable to carry their load," it added.

	Hundreds of thousands of Burmese from virtually all ethnic groups 
have also been repeatedly detained and forced to do hard labour, Amnesty 
said.

[AFP, 8 August 1996].

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