EBO “
News Summary:
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1. Human rights abuses persist in
2. Burmese Military Threaten Villagers
before the ICRC visit to
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Human rights abuses persist in
political rights abuses over 2002, with ethnic
minorities in particular
suffering atrocities, Human Rights Watch said in
its annual report released
Tuesday.
Hopes for an improvement in the human
rights situation which were raised
following the release from house arrest of democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi
in May failed to be realised, the New
York-based watchdog said.
"By late 2002, talks between Suu Kyi
and the government had ground to a
halt and systemic restrictions on basic civil
and political liberties
continued unabated," the group said in its
report for 2003.
UN-brokered talks between the junta and
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy party aimed at national
reconciliation began in October 2000,
but are yet to progress to a political
dialogue.
The report noted that although the junta
released more than 300 political
prisoners following Aung San Suu Kyi's release, a
call from the UN for a
general amnesty for all political prisoners was
ignored and political
dissidents continued to be arrested.
Human rights problems facing the
population included forced labour, forced
relocations, censorship, the use of child soldiers,
violations of religious
freedom and atrocities committed against ethnic
minorities, the report found.
"Children as young as seven were used
as forced labour in many parts of the
country to carry army supplies or work on
construction sites," it said, adding
that thousands of boys as young as 11 had been
forced into the army.
The most extreme violations were reported
against the country's ethnic
minority groups, particularly in Karen and Shan
states.
The junta also launched a broad crackdown
on Rohingya Muslims following
international press reports alleging ties between them
and al-Qaeda, the
report said.
"At times,
dissidents, rural people, and women and children
fleeing violence in
appeared to respond to
junta," the report said.
In a particularly gruesome case
illustrating the problem of illegal
workers, the bodies of 20 ethnic Karen villagers
were found in the river
dividing the two countries.
"Investigators later concluded that
the Karens were being smuggled in by a
Thai couple, who discovered en route that
the labourers had suffocated and
simply dumped their bodies in the river,"
it said.
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Burmese Military Threaten
Villagers before the ICRC visit to
Asian Tribune
Date : 2003-01-14
ex-government officials at the Laikha
police station to form a civilian committee
to shadow the International Committee for
Red Cross team. The Shan Women
Action Committee Network revealed this in
a press statement.
Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN) in a
Press statement alleges that
the Burmese military authorities threaten
villagers before International
Red Cross visit to
The full text of the Press Release issued
by the SWAN is given below:
Before the visit of an International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) team
to Laikha town in
were threatened by the military authorities,
according to reports from Shan
refugees who have recently arrived at the border.
The ten-member ICRC team were conducting a
ten-day assessment visit to
to Loilem, Namzarng, Murng Nai and Laikha.
Two days prior to the visit to Laikha, police and military authorities ordered
some of the local teachers, headmen and
ex-government officials to come to
the Laikha police
station, and commanded them to form a civilian "committee"
which would liaise with the ICRC. They were
ordered to accompany the ICRC team
and note down all questions asked, and
threatened to be "careful" when answering
any questions.
The ICRC has only recently been allowed by
the regime into this area of Central
regime since 1996, and where the majority of the
173 rape incidents documented
in the June 2002 report "Licence to
Rape" by SWAN and the Shan Human Rights
Foundation were committed.
The military regime has repeatedly
rejected the findings of the report, citing
the presence of international agencies,
including the ICRC, in
as evidence that the rapes could not have
taken place. On
it again denied it had been using rape as a
weapon of war, in response to
a US State Department report repeating the
allegations.
"It is very clear that the military
regime wants to use the presence of ICRC
in
women," said Mo Lao of the Shan Women's
Action Network. "But if they really
have nothing to hide, why are they asking
villagers to be "careful" when answering
questions?"
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