Reuters-Myanmar rights situation wo

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Subject: Reuters-Myanmar rights situation worsening - U.N. report

Myanmar rights situation worsening - U.N. report
02:49 p.m Mar 15, 1999 Eastern
GENEVA, March 15 (Reuters) - A United Nations investigator says he believes
the human rights situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate.

In a report published on Monday for the U.N. Human Rights Commission,
investigator Rajsoomer Lallah said ``the situation of human rights in
Myanmar is worsening and the repression of civil and political rights
continues unabated.''

Military-ruled Myanmar has not allowed Lallah, a former Mauritius chief
justice, to visit since he was appointed the U.N. special rapporteur for the
former Burma in 1996.

But he has pieced together evidence from documents, photographs and
witnesses to issue several reports over the past few years which have
recounted incidents of summary executions, arbitrary detentions and forced
labour.

``The government of Myanmar continues to intimidate its citizens and
prevents them from exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of
association and expression by prosecuting persons for criminal and
treason-related offences,'' his latest report said.

It said harassment was increasing of members of the National League for
Democracy, which is headed by 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu
Kyi. The party won Myanmar's last election in 1990 but has not been allowed
to take office.

``In December 1998, almost all of the members of the organising committees
in the states, divisions, townships, wards and villages have been taken into
custody for no apparent reason and they are unable to fulfil their
obligations and duties,'' the report said.

Lallah said displaced people appeared to be made up largely to the country's
ethnic minorities.

He welcomed ceasefires signed with armed ethnic groups over the past few
years but said this problem was likely to continue until the establishment
of a meaningful political dialogue which included ethnic minorities.

His comments on the human rights situation follow similar criticism in the
U.S. State Department's annual report on Myanmar released last month.