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Burma Country Report on Human Right



Subject: Burma Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1998 [PART 1]

Dear Netters,
                        The following is the US Human Rights Reports on
Burma.As the document is too long to fit in one email,I've divided them into
4 parts.

Peace.

Julien Moe
*************

U.S. Department of State 

Burma Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1998

Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, February 26,
1999. 

                                                                            

                                         BURMA

Burma continued to be ruled by a highly authoritarian military regime. The
military Government known as the State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) seized power in September 1988
after harshly suppressing massive
prodemocracy demonstrations. In November 1997, the SLORC announced that the
military Government had
renamed itself the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The regime is
headed by armed forces
commander General Than Shwe and composed of top military officers. Retired
dictator General Ne Win, whose
idiosyncratic policies had isolated the country and driven it into deep
economic decline, may continue to wield
considerable influence. The SLORC permitted a relatively free election in
1990, but it failed to honor the
results--which were an overwhelming rejection of military rule--and cede
power to the victorious prodemocracy
forces. Instead, the SLORC attacked the coalition of winning parties and
their leaders through intimidation, detention,
and house arrest, and redoubled efforts to consolidate and perpetuate its
rule. In 1993 the SLORC established the
"National Convention," a body ostensibly tasked with drafting a new
constitution. The SLORC carefully handpicked
the delegates and stage-managed the constitutional convention's proceedings,
ignoring even limited opposition views.
Although the National Convention has not been reconvened since 1996, the
military government appears determined
to draft a constitution that would ensure a dominant role for the military
services in the country's future political
structure. In August the principal democratic opposition party, the National
League for Democracy (NLD), winner of
the 1990 election, sought to expedite the transition to democracy by
convening a parliament based on the election
results. The SPDC responded by detaining 200 opposition NLD Members of
Parliament-elect, along with hundreds
of other democracy supporters; most remain in detention. There are more than
1,000 political prisoners. This action
was taken to preempt any challenge to the perpetual military domination of
the nation's political life. The judiciary is
not independent of the executive.

The Government reinforces its firm military rule with a pervasive security
apparatus led by the military intelligence
organization, the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI).
Control is buttressed by arbitrary restrictions
on citizens'

contacts with foreigners, surveillance of government employees and private
citizens, harassment of political activists,
intimidation, arrest, detention, and physical abuse. The Government
justifies its security measures as necessary to
maintain order and national unity. However, most major insurgent groups have
reached individual accommodations
with the SLORC/SPDC in recent years, which provide varying levels of
stability and autonomy from central
government control. Members of the security forces committed numerous,
serious human rights abuses.

Burma is a poor country with an estimated average per capita income of about
$400, but about $800 on a purchasing
power parity basis. More than three decades of military rule and
mismanagement have resulted in widespread
poverty. Primarily an agricultural country, Burma also has substantial
mineral, fishing, and timber resources. From
1988 to 1995, the Government partly liberalized and opened the economy to
permit expansion of the small private
sector and attract foreign investment. This led to some economic growth, but
major policy and systemic obstacles to
economic reform persist. These include extensive overt and covert state
involvement in economic activity, state
monopolization of leading exports, a bloated bureaucracy, arbitrary and
opaque governance, corruption, poor human
and physical infrastructure, and disproportionately large military spending
at the expense of social development
spending and stable prices. The difficulty of doing business in the country
and international sanctions have discouraged
potential investors. 

The Government's longstanding severe repression of human rights continued
during the year. 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 SPDC 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.
Prison conditions are harsh and life
threatening. Arbitrary arrests and detentions for expression of dissenting
political views continued with increasing
frequency in an effort to intimidate the populace into submission in the
face of deepening economic and political
instability. More than 1,000 political prisoners remained in government
custody, including the approximately 200
parliamentarians elected in 1990 detained since September. Since May 1996,
at least 1,000 persons have been
arrested, detained, or imprisoned for political reasons. The judiciary is
subject to executive influence. During the year,
foreign tourists, businessmen and those suspected of or charged with
political actions were subjected to increased
surveillance, harassment, deportation, and in a few cases imprisonment. 

The SPDC maintained and intensified its restrictions on basic rights of free
speech, press, assembly, and association.
Political party activity remained severely restricted. Although the
authorities recognize the NLD as a legal entity, they
prevented the party from conducting normal political activities. The
Government pressured many party offices
throughout the country to close and refused to recognize the legal political
status of key NLD party leaders, its
General Secretary and 1991 Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the two
party cochairmen, and it severely
constrained their activities through security measures and threats. The
regime detained more than 900 Members of
Parliament-elect and NLD supporters to prevent the party from convening the
parliament that was elected in 1990. It
also tightened progressively the restrictions that it imposed in late 1996
on Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom to leave her
Rangoon compound and her ability to receive visitors. On four occasions, the
SPDC prevented Aung San Suu Kyi
from leaving Rangoon, which prompted confrontations that lasted several
days. While two of the standoffs were
resolved through negotiation, on one occasion security forces forced Aung
San Suu Kyi to return to Rangoon. On
another occasion Aung San Suu Kyi returned voluntarily, but only after her
health had deteriorated dangerously when
soldiers blocked her vehicle on a road for nearly 2 weeks to prevent her
from peacefully visiting families of her
detained supporters. 

The Government imposes restrictions on certain religious minorities, and
restricts freedom of movement. Thousands
of citizens fled army attacks against insurgents, and remained in refugee
camps in Thailand at year's end. Societal
discrimination and violence against women, trafficking in women and girls,
and widespread adult and child prostitution
are severe problems. Some discrimination against women, and severe
discrimination against religious and ethnic and
minorities are common. The Government restricts worker rights, bans unions,
and uses forced labor for public works
and to produce food and other daily necessities for military garrisons. The
forced use of citizens as porters by the
army--with attendant mistreatment, illness, and sometimes death--remained a
common practice. The Government did
not enforce its 1995 military directive and repeated promise to cease the
practice of forced civilian labor. Forced
civilian labor remains widespread. The pervasive use of forced unpaid
civilian labor on major infrastructure projects
decreased slightly, as soldiers were used to supplement "contributed" labor
by civilians. Child labor is also a problem,
stemming from poverty and lack of adequate access to education.

During the SPDC's antiinsurgency operations, members of the military forces
were responsible for arbitrary killings,
rape, village relocations, the destruction of homes and property, and forced
labor inflicted on ethnic minorities. 

Insurgent forces committed numerous abuses, including killings, rapes,
forced labor, the forced use of civilians as
porters, and other atrocities.