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UN details labour, rape accusation

Work-gang miseries for women of all ages

Bangkok Post
April 16, 1998

London, AFP

Pregnant women are forced to work on heavy infrastructure projects in Burma
and sometimes even murdered or raped, a United Nations Human Rights
Commission report said on Tuesday.

Describing the people of Burma as living in a climate of fear, the document
identifies numerous human rights violations including forced labour and
arbitrary executions.

On abuse of women, it said: "increasing numbers of women, including young
girls and the elderly, have been forced to work on infrastructure projects
and to act as porters in war zones."

"In these projects women are not spared forced recruitment, even when they
are pregnant or nursing their infants," it said.

On the work site, women, like men, risked exhaustion, accidents and lack of
medical treatment, the report said, adding: "they are also victims of many
other serious human rights violations such as beatings, rape and murder."

The rapporteur said he continued to received "numerous allegations of acts
of torture committed by soldiers of the Tatmadaw (Burmese army)."

"Well-documented reports, photographs and testimonies received by the
Special Rapporteur lead him to conclude that extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions, the practice of torture, portering and forced labour
continue to occur in Burma, particularly in the context of the development
programmes and of counter-insurgency operations in minority-dominated
regions," it said.

However, Rapporteur Rajsoomer Lallah of Mauritius noted a positive attitude
in the easing of restrictions on political parties in Burma.

But it appeared this change was "of a purely formal and limited nature,
given the virtually complete control which the authorities seem to exercise
on the freedoms of association, assembly and expression," he said.