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(PART 2) ) SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON M



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PART 2


IV. Situation in the ethnic minority States

31. In his last report to the Commission on Human Rights, the Special
Rapporteur extensively addressed the situation in the ethnic minority
States. His concerns and conclusions unfortunately remain valid.

32. The Special Rapporteur is deeply concerned at the ongoing generalized
human rights violations committed against the ethnic groups and other
minorities in the eastern part of Myanmar, particularly Shan and Karen
States. The violations have been thoroughly documented by human rights
organizations and newly arrived refugees in Thailand describing the same
stories of widespread human rights violations committed by the military,
including summary executions, rape, torture, ill treatment during forced
labour, portering, forcible relocation of villages and dispossession of
land and other property.

33. According to information received by the Special Rapporteur, Saw Sing,
from Kengkham village, Kunhing township, had been forcibly relocated to
Kunhing town in 1996. In January 1999, he received permission from local
authorities to return to his village to collect his cattle. He spent the
night in Kengham where he was caught and shot dead the following day by
troops from Unit 513 based in Loilem. Further reported cases include
killings in Papun district in early 1999 by forces of SPDC and the
Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army (DKBA). Saw Pha Blaw, a 16-year-old boy and
Naw Htoo Paw, an 18-year-old woman, both Seventh Day Adventists, were
reportedly shot dead when troops opened fire on a group of students after
the troops had entered the village demanding 20 porters.

34. The Special Rapporteur received information about at least 29 Karen
villagers, including a baby and two children, age 2 and age 8, who were
allegedly slaughtered recently by Myanmar troops. It was further reported
that on 26 July 1999, a column from Infantry Battalion 101, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel Soe Win, entered Kawei and Hpway Plaw villages 11 miles
north of Taninthayi town, Mergui district, Tenasserim division. The next
day, the soldiers reportedly massacred at least 22 villagers. Some
villagers are reportedly still missing. The victims were reportedly beaten
to death or stabbed; others had their arms and legs broken first and were
killed later while still others were placed inside empty rice sacks and
pounded with a rice husker until they died. A 19-year-old woman, Naw Nall
Naw, was allegedly gang-raped by the soldiers before she was killed.

35. It has also been reported that soldiers looted whatever they found
useful and destroyed the rest of the villagers' property completely. More
than 200 cattle were taken away by the troops to the army camp at Ta Hpo
Hta village, which also serves as a relocation site. Many other villagers
from the area have fled and about 137 people are reported to have reached a
safer location. An estimated 400 villagers were desperately trying to reach
safety and have been pursued by Myanmar soldiers from Infantry Battalions
101 and 103.

36. The Special Rapporteur has also received information that, on 31 July
1999, a group of 43 soldiers led by company commander Mo Kyaw and his
assistant, Ka Htay, from Fourth Company, Infantry Battalion 101, went to Ta
Hpo Hkee, a village near the Kawei and Hpway Plaw massacre sites, where
they captured a group of seven Karen civilians, including a nine-year-old
girl and a pregnant woman, and killed them. Both single women and the
nine-year-old girl were reported to have been gang-raped by the soldiers
before they were slaughtered. The pregnant woman was killed by a shot fired
at the abdominal region. Earlier, on 24 July, Myanmar soldiers from
Infantry Battalion 101 had burnt and destroyed the villagers' property,
including food stores and crops, at Ta Hpo Kee village.

37. The Special Rapporteur continues to receive reports indicating that
there is a constant flow of new refugees into Thailand. It is reported that
thousands of persons have arrived since the last visit of the Special
Rapporteur to the region in December 1998. The rate of new arrivals in
Maela, for example, is still about 60 families (300 people) per month.
However, there are still, according to many reports, a large number of
internally displaced persons - over 500,000 - inside Myanmar who are living
in abject conditions in the jungle and at relocation sites, with little
food and subject to exposure to all sorts of diseases.

V. United Nations programmes in Myanmar

38. Bearing in mind the recommendation made in paragraph 82 of his report
to the Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/1999/35) and paragraphs 7 (a) and
8 (e) of Commission resolution 1999/17, the Special Rapporteur has sought
full information from a number of agencies of the United Nations system
regarding their ongoing programmes in Myanmar. The following paragraphs
indicate the substance of the information provided to the Special
Rapporteur by these agencies.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

39. Since 1994, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) has been operational in northern Rakhine State, around the
areas of Maungdaw, Rathedaung and Buthidaung. UNHCR's activities are
focused on assisting refugee repatriates from Bangladesh in reintegrating
into their villages of origin and on efforts to create conditions that
would stabilize the local Muslim population and enhance possibilities for
their self-sufficiency.

40. Between 1994 and 1997, some 230,000 Muslim refugees from Myanmar in
Bangladesh returned to northern Rakhine State in Myanmar. The repatriation
process was suspended in August 1997 and resumed in November 1998. However,
only some 300 persons have returned since then owing to various procedural
difficulties. A residual caseload of some 22,000 refugees remain in two
camps in Bangladesh.

41. The objective of UNHCR's operation in Myanmar is to facilitate the
reintegration of returnees and stabilize the Muslim population (about
800,000) through community-based assistance and infrastructure support in
areas such as improvements to roads, water supplies, sanitation,
health-care and educational facilities. Income-generation and skills
training activities are also undertaken. In 1999, UNHCR has placed
particular emphasis on promoting food security for extremely vulnerable
families through the introduction of high-yield seeds and double cropping.

42. UNHCR works in cooperation with the World Food Programme (WFP), the
United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF). In addition, five non-governmental organization
partners assist in the implementation of programme activities.

43. UNHCR also actively supports the participation of women in its
assistance activities in order to increase their self-confidence and
strengthen peer support mechanisms. These efforts have been articulated and
implemented in activities such as the UNHCR/Magsaysay Centres for Women,
the Women's Literacy Training Programme, the provision of food supplements
for female pupils, and training and income-generating activities for female
heads of household. Similarly, UNHCR caters for special needs of children
and adolescents by improving their access to the education system through
child and adolescent literacy training programmes. UNHCR also works closely
with UNICEF in the promotion of children's rights in Myanmar.

World Food Programme

44. The operational involvement of the World Food Programme (WFP) in
Myanmar commenced in May 1994 following the launching of a joint UNHCR/WFP
appeal to assist the resettlement and reintegration process of returnees
who had fled to Bangladesh in 1991-1992. Additional support is also being
provided towards improving the economic conditions in the remote villages
of north Rakhine State in order to reduce the chances of a future exodus to
Bangladesh.

45. Since its initial involvement, WFP has provided food assistance to
about 175,000 returnees. In addition, some 30,000 annually benefit from
food-for-work programmes (road construction, water harvesting, school
feeding and so forth) while about 10,000 benefit from WFP's relief
assistance, specifically targeted at vulnerable households.

United Nations International Drug Control Programme

46. Myanmar is one of the largest opium and heroin producers in the world.
The production of amphetamine-type stimulants has increased dramatically in
recent years, and the country has also been struck by widespread drug abuse
in both rural and urban areas. United Nations International Drug Control
Programme (UNDCP) programmes are designed to address these problems through
a balanced approach, which was recognized as being required to overcome the
drug problem by the General Assembly at its twentieth special session on
the world drug problem held in June 1998. The approach, balanced between
demand and supply reduction, is effectively reflected in the UNDCP Country
Programme and Subregional Action Plan for South-East Asia which includes
Cambodia, China, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand
and Viet Nam.

47. In the field of demand reduction, UNDCP is working in partnership with
international governmental organizations and local communities. Ongoing
UNDCP-funded projects in this sector demonstrate community-based drug
treatment and rehabilitation models (Kachin and northern Shan States) and
aim at reducing the prevalence of injecting among drug users (Kachin
State).

48. The most significant UNDCP project in Myanmar is in the field of supply
reduction. The Drug Control and Development Project in the Wa region of the
Shan States is a five-year alternative development project with a budget of
US$ 15.5 million. The project features development activities and
monitoring of opium poppy cultivation. Development activities include
community-based interventions on public health, education, infrastructure
(access roads, irrigation, water supply, electrification), resource
management, alternative livelihood (income-generation, livestock and
agriculture, agroforestry).

49. A constraint in Myanmar is that most opium-producing areas have not
historically been under government administration. Since 1989, ceasefire
agreements with the ethnic groups that control these areas have brought
more stability, and the local authorities have agreed progressively to
phase out opium poppy cultivation. It is in this improved context that the
Wa alternative development project is being implemented at the grass-roots
level with the opium-producing communities, in coordination with the
Government of Myanmar and the local ethnic authorities.

VI. Conclusions and recommendations

50. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the resumption of its valuable work by
ICRC and the cooperation of the Government in this regard. It is to be
hoped that this cooperation will continue and be extended to all prisons
and other places of detention throughout the country. The cooperation of
the Government is indicative of its recognition of the fundamental norms,
namely, that persons who are deprived of their liberty have a right not to
be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment and must be treated with humanity and respect for their inherent
human dignity, as proclaimed in article 5 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and further explicitly described in articles 7 and 10 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

51. The efforts of the agencies of the United Nations system conducting
operational activities in Myanmar can indeed prove most valuable in the
provision of humanitarian assistance. These efforts should be intensified,
should focus on programmes at the grass-roots level and should be developed
from the perspective of those who most need their basic human rights
protected, such as the internally displaced, women and children and other
vulnerable groups. These programmes should focus also on such problem
sectors as health and education. There is a need, however, for the
maintenance of systematic consultation and coordination among the agencies
to ensure that assistance activities focus on humanitarian assistance and
basic human rights protection and promotion and that the resolutions
adopted by the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights are
taken fully into account.

52. Except for the developments highlighted in the above two paragraphs,
there has been no progress in the situation of human rights in Myanmar. If
anything, the situation is worsening. Repression of civil and political
rights continues and intensifies whenever there is any form of public
protest or any form of public political activity. Repressive laws are still
used to prohibit and punish any exercise of the basic rights of freedom of
thought, expression, assembly and association, in particular in connection
with the exercise of legitimate political rights. This regime of repression
puts the right to life, liberty and physical integrity - when it is not
simply violated - permanently at risk. The rule of law cannot be said to
exist and function, as the judicial system is subject to a military regime
and serves only as handmaiden to a policy of repression.

53. No effective measures have been taken to restrain forced labour
amounting to no less than a contemporary form of slavery, in spite of
freely assumed international obligations; and the practice still continues
in the name of tradition, or else of economic development.

54. In the ethnic areas, the policy of establishing absolute political and
administrative control brings out the worst in the military, and results in
killings, brutality, rape and other human rights violations which do not
spare the old, women, children or the weak.

55. For all these reasons, the Special Rapporteur must unfortunately renew
the recommendations he made in his last report to the General Assembly.


                             © Copyright 1999
      Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
                            Geneva, Switzerland


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