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ANNESTIY INTERNAIONAL REPORT 1998 (



Subject: ANNESTIY INTERNAIONAL REPORT 1998 (2/2)

In August Myo Aung Thant, a member of the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma,
was sentenced to "transportation for life" defined in the 1957 Burmese
Penal Cod as equivalent to transportation for 2 years - for committing
"High Treason and to 10 years' additional imprisonment He had been arrested
in June and accuse of passing money to the NLD and assembling  explosives
in order to assassinate a unnamed SLORC member.  His trial was re portedly
held in camera and lasted only 10 days.

Reports of torture and ill-treatment o prisoners in prisons and labour camp
continued.  Prisoner of conscience Khin Zaw Win, arrested in 1994 (see
Amnesty International Report 1995), was reported to have been badly
tortured in early 1996, and remained in poor health.

Prison conditions for political prisoners often amounted to cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment.  Prisoners suffered from lack of proper medical
care and an inadequate diet.  In April and May at least 51 political
prisoners, including Khin Zaw Win, were transferred to prisons far from
their homes, making it extremely difficult to receive supplementary food
and medicine from their families.

U Tin Shwe, a 67-year-old lawyer, writer and NLD founding member imprisoned
since 1990, died of a heart attack in April in Insein Prison.  Requests for
proper medical care had reportedly been ignored He was one of 29 political
prisoners who had been placed in tiny cells meant for dogs and deprived of
food and medical care during 1995 and 1996 (see Amnesty International
Report 1997).

The military continued to commit wide spread human rights violations
against ethnic minorities, including extra-judicial executions, forcible
relocations, torture an ill-treatment.  In April Pa Nya Paw, a Karen
villager, was tortured to death by the arm during interrogation about the
whereabouts of KNU soldiers.  From January onwards, thousands of people
were randomly seized by the army and forced to carry supplies and
ammunition during the offensive against the KNU.  Porters were held in army
custody for periods ranging from a few days to several months.  They
usually received little food and no medical treatment, and were beaten if
they were unable to carry their loads.

Civilians of all ethnicities were routinely seized by the military for
forced labour duties on infrastructural projects such as roads, quarries
and railways.  Conditions often amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading

treatment.  Members of ethnic minorities, particularly the Karen, Karenni,
Mon and Shan, were most at risk.  A group of 400 Mon refugees sent back to
Myanmar by the Thai army were subjected to forced portering and labour on
army bases by the Burmese army.  All of them had fled back to Thailand by
July.

In January Burmese soldiers crossed into Thailand and attacked two Karenni
refugee camps.  They opened fire, deliberately killing two Karenni refugees
and seriously wounding nine others (see Thailand entry).

Forcible relocations, apparently carried out solely because of ethnic
origin or perceived political beliefs, continued, particularly in the Shan
State, but also in other areas, including the Kayin, Kayah, Rakhine, and
Mon States.  Relocations were often accompanied by death threats,
ill-treatment, and restrictions on freedom of movement.  From March
onwards, tens of thousands of Shan civilians were forcibly evicted from
their villages by the army.  Tens of thousands fled to Thailand.  There
were widespread reports of troops killing scores of villagers who attempted
to return to their homes to retrieve their belongings. in June and July 300
Shan civilians were reportedly killed by the army in retaliation for the
killing of 25 ethnic Burman civilians by an unknown Shan armed opposition
group.  In March  Muslims in the Kayin State were forcibly evicted from
their villages under threat of death and, beginning in February, thousands
of Karen civilians in Papun District, northern Kayin State, were also
evicted by the army.  Ninety-three villages were destroyed and at least
nine Karen civilians shot dead.

In May two convicted drug-traffickers were sentenced to death for heroin
possession after having been arrested in August 1996 in the Shan State.  No
executions were known to have taken place.

The Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army (DKBA), a Karen armed opposition group,
continued to attack Karen refugees in Thailand; at least five refugees were
killed and several injured.  In January the DKBA destroyed two refugee
camps in Thailand, leaving 7,000 Karen civilians homeless.

In February and October Amnesty Intentional published reports about the
continuing repression of students and members of the NLD.  In July the
organization published Myanmar: Ethnic minority rights under attack, which
detailed human rights violations against the Mon, Karen, Karenni and Shan
ethnic minorities.

Amnesty International continued to call for the release of prisoners of
conscience and for an end to torture and ill-treatment.