Burma News Update

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Burma News Update No. 50
11 February 1998

US State Dept. Report

Forced Labor Investigation

Refugees Flee Torture

Universities Remain Closed

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"Longstanding Severe Repression"
The US State Department issued its annual human rights report on 30 January.
Noting that the Burmese military junta's "longstanding severe repression of
human rights continued during the year," the report said: "Citizens continued to
live subject at any time and without appeal to the arbitrary and sometimes
brutal dictates of the military dictatorship. Citizens do not have the right to
change their government. The SLORC has given no sign of a willingness to cede
its hold on absolute power. There continue to be credible reports, particularly
in ethnic minority-dominated areas, that soldiers committed serious human rights
abuses, including extrajudicial killings and rape. Disappearances continued, and
members of the security forces beat and otherwise abused detainees. . . . [A]
pervasive security apparatus led by the military intelligence organization, the
Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI) . . . is buttressed by
selective restrictions on contact with foreigners, surveillance of government
employees and private citizens, harassment of political activists, intimidation,
arrest, detention, and physical abuse. . . . [M]ajor obstacles to economic
reform persist. These include extensive overt and covert state involvement in
economic activity, state monopolization of leading exports, a bloated
bureaucracy prone to arbitrary and opaque governance, corruption, poor human and
physical infrastructure, and disproportionately large military spending." 
(U.S. Department of State Burma Country Report on Human Rights Practices for
1997, 30 January) [The full text of this report is available at: <http://
www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/
1997_hrp_report/burma.html>].

Forced Labor Investigation
The International Labour Organization (ILO) is investigating  reports that
Burma's army junta is using forced labor to transport military supplies and to
work on state projects around the country. An ILO spokesman in Geneva said that
many people are reportedly being forced to give up their livelihoods to work
without pay for the military. An ILO commission of inquiry visiting Southeast
Asia, which has been refused entry to Burma, will issue a report in the next few
months. (BBC World Service, 4 February)

Refugees Flee Torture
Two-thirds of Burmese refugees were tortured by soldiers before fleeing their
homeland, according to a survey of Burmese in refugee camps in Thailand
conducted by Danish Doctors for Human Rights. Some refugees were raped and some
reported seeing family members murdered by soldiers, according to the 30-page
report. (Copenhagen, Agence France-Presse, 22 January)

Universities Still Shuttered
Universities in Burma, closed since December 1996 student protests against the
ruling military junta, are unlikely to reopen soon, despite continual rumors
that classes may resume. Since the army seized direct power in September 1988,
the country's universities have been shuttered more than they have been open.
Low pay and tight control over faculty and curriculum have affected the quality
and morale of lecturers, some of whom receive as little as four dollars monthly
in official salary. According to former US ambassador to Burma, Burton Levin,
"The real tragedy of Burma is that it is a country of the educated ruled by the
uneducated." Only four of the 21 generals who made up the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC) junta had university degrees, and eight had not
finished high school. (Asiaweek, 13 February)

Sanctions Hit "Very Fragile" Economy
Western sanctions, suspension of International Monetary Fund and other aid, and
other "machinations" are hurting Burma's "very fragile" economy, according to
Lt. General Khin Nyunt, a top general of Burma's army junta, who said human
rights are a Western "excuse" to damage the country. The official New Light of
Myanmar quoted the General as saying that Western nations "have recruited a
group of flunkies to meddle in and disrupt the internal situation in the
country." Burma's economic growth, hurt by soaring prices and a wildly
fluctuating currency, has dropped over the past year. (Rangoon, Agence France-
Presse, 23 January)