Human Rights Watch report
on Burma
Burma
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Human Rights Developments
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Defending Human Rights
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The Role of the International Community
With the release of opposition leader Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi in May after nineteen months of de facto house arrest, hope
arose that the military junta might take steps to improve its human rights
record. However, 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. Ethnic minority regions continued to report
particularly grave abuses, including forced labor and
the rape of Shan minority women by military forces. Government military forces
continued to forcibly recruit and use child soldiers.
HUMAN RIGHTS
DEVELOPMENTS
Burma faced serious economic problems in 2002,
but internal political struggles prevented a unitary response to the economic
crisis. A reshuffle of top generals in November 2001 was followed by the March
2002 arrests of four relatives of former top general Ne Win, amidst allegations
of coup plots. In September 2002, the four were sentenced to death for treason.
In the midst of this political and
economic instability, Suu Kyi's release in May seemed to augur a new readiness
on the part of the ruling military party, the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC), to negotiate with opposition groups in hopes of gaining
much-needed international investment and aid. Suu Kyi traveled
outside of Rangoon to Mandalay and elsewhere, meeting with thousands of
supporters without interference or arrest.
These negotiations were held chiefly with
the National League for Democracy (NLD), which is led by Suu Kyi. The NLD had
been elected to a majority of seats in parliament in 1990, but was blocked from
taking power by the then-ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC). SLORC changed its name to the State Peace and Development Council and
shuffled some top leaders. In 2002, local NLD township offices reopened around
the country. In September 2002, the NLD called on the SPDC to fulfill its pledge to begin negotiations to hand over power
to the elected representatives. Ethnic minority opposition groups called for
their inclusion in negotiations between the government and the NLD, but the
SPDC and Suu Kyi have yet to agree to this.
During the negotiations, the government
released more than three hundred political prisoners. In August, Burmese
opposition groups jointly called on the SPDC to release hundreds of political
prisoners still in prison, including eighteen elected members of parliament
from opposition political parties. The U.N. urged the SPDC to declare a general
amnesty for all political prisoners, but the SPDC ignored these demands.
In the meantime, more political dissidents
were arrested, and prominent political prisoner U Aung May Thu passed away. In
December 2001, seventy-four-year-old former university rector Dr. Salai Tun Than was arrested for
his one-man protest in front of Rangoon City Hall. The Yezin University professor of agronomy from Pyinmana had distributed copies of his letter calling for
political reform and multiparty elections. He is serving a seven-year sentence
in a Rangoon prison.
In mid-August, during a visit by Malaysian
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the state detained
fifteen Rangoon university students in the first major
crackdown after Suu Kyi's release. Thirteen were subsequently released, but two
law students were sentenced to long prison terms for distributing pro-democracy
pamphlets. In September, dozens of dissidents were detained in Rangoon.
Burma's other continuing human rights
problems include the widespread use of forced labor,
forced relocations, censorship, use of child soldiers, violations of religious
freedom, and atrocities committed against ethnic minorities, whose regions make
up most of the country's territory. Burmese Muslims were especially targeted
for persecution.
Although a law banning forced labor was passed in October 2000, authorities continued to
use forced labor, especially in rural ethnic regions.
The Burmese military compelled villagers to work on infrastructure and
agricultural projects, as porters in army camps, and on the construction of
Buddhist temples. In November in Shan State, villagers were compelled to build
railroads and to farm; one laborer who resisted was
reportedly beaten to death. Children as young as seven were used as forced labor in many parts of the country to carry army supplies
or work on construction sites.
The military continued to forcibly
relocate minority villages, especially in areas where ethnic activists and
rebels were active, and in areas targeted for the development of international
tourism. The U.S. State Department's 2002 country report on human rights in
Burma estimated that forced relocations had produced hundreds of thousands of
refugees, with as many as one million internally displaced persons within the
country.
The state continued to censor media. The
Committee to Protect Journalists reported that eighteen journalists were held
on charges ranging from "illegal possession of a fax machine" to
smuggling poetry out of prison. One Burmese national was arrested in February
and accused of sending information to foreign radio stations, and the SPDC
alleged that many more "informers" who were sending information to
foreign media would be arrested soon. Two Burmese magazines, Living Color and Mhyar Nat
Maung Mingalar, were each shut down for one month
for minor infractions.
Burma continued to use child soldiers.
Thousands of boys, some as young as eleven, have been forced into Burma's national army. Recruiters typically
staked out railway, bus, and ferry stations; the street; marketplaces and
festivals; and threatened boys who could not produce identity cards with long
prison terms or military enlistment. Boys who resisted recruitment were often
beaten or detained. Once deployed, they were forced to fight against Burma's ethnic minorities and other opposition
forces; and to participate in human rights abuses against civilians, including
rounding up villagers for forced labor, burning
villages, and extrajudicial executions. Child soldiers who deserted had few
options, and typically either joined armed opposition forces or fled to neighboring countries. After an October 2002 Human Rights
Watch report on the use of child soldiers in Burma attracted international attention, the
government denied any recruitment or use of child soldiers.
Children were also present in many armed
opposition groups, though the numbers of child soldiers in these smaller armies
were fewer. Both the Kachin Independence Army and the United Wa
State Army, which have historically been the largest opposition groups, but
which now sometimes align with the Burmese military, forcibly recruited
children. Others, such as the Karen National Liberation Army, Karenni Army, and
Shan State Army-South accepted boys who expressed a desire to join, despite the
armies' official minimum recruitment age of eighteen.
Lack of access to education exacerbated
human rights abuses against children in Burma. Some schools in ethnic areas were closed
because of fighting, and even when schools were open, families were often
unable to pay the school fees. Children who left school often took jobs selling
food or goods in the streets. Many traveled to larger
cities seeking work. These children became easy targets for military
recruitment or forced labor.
Many of the worst violations in the
country were reported against civilians living in minority regions, especially
in Karen and Shan States. In March, fighting flared up along the
Thai-Burmese borders, when Karen rebels reportedly attacked army outposts. In
May, the Burmese military and Buddhist Karen allies attacked Christian Karen
villages, hospitals and schools. Burmese soldiers executed villagers suspected
of sympathy with the rebels, and in several instances
also executed Karen families caught while attempting to flee forced relocation.
Townships in Shan State, such as Loi Kha and Loi Kawwan,
were closed off by the Burmese military to outside visitors, amidst reports of
forced relocation, forced labor, torture, rape, and
extrajudicial killings. Refugees reported massacres in Shan State in September. Thousands of Karen and Shan
refugees fled across the borders to Thailand.
In July, the Shan Women's Action Network
(SWAN) and the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF), based in Thailand, published a report on the systematic
rape of women and girls in Shan State by the Burmese military. The report,
based on interviews with refugees along the Thai-Burmese border, documented the
rapes of 173 women and girls by Burmese military forces. According to the
report, officers committed 83 percent of the rapes, often in front of their
troops; 25 percent of the rapes resulted in death; and over half were
gang-rapes. In some cases, women were held in sexual slavery. The report
attracted international attention. Subsequently, the Burmese government claimed
to have launched an investigation which concluded the allegations were
unfounded. In one of the ensuing series of press conferences, the government
said the report's authors were "narco-terrorists"
sponsored by foreign governments. Some researchers reported harassment and
threats in Thailand after the report's publication. In
September, some refugees fleeing Shan State reported that villagers were being forced
to sign statements denying the rapes.
In the wake of international press reports
alleging ties between al-Qaeda and the Burmese
government, the government launched a broad crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.
Tensions between the Buddhist majority and
Muslim minority were still apparent in 2002, and restrictions were tightened in
late 2001. Restrictions on travel by Muslims were far more rigidly enforced,
especially in Arakan State, and the government limited the number of
Muslims allowed to travel to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage. Muslims claimed
they continued to have difficulties getting passports to travel abroad and in
building mosques. News accounts reported extortion and abuse of Muslim crew
members on fishing boats by the Burmese Navy off the Maungdaw coast.
Other religious groups reported restrictions
as well. In the northwest, observers reported that the government was forcibly
converting Naga Christians to Buddhism. The
government continued its widespread building project with new Buddhist temples
and statues erected around the country, including on ethnic minority sacred
sites. Some monuments sacred to ethnic minorities were destroyed and replaced
with new structures, such as hotels, against local objections.
DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS
The SPDC did not permit local human rights
groups to operate in Burma and those human rights and democracy
organizations that did function had to do so from abroad.
THE ROLE OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
The release of Suu Kyi from house arrest
and the release of political prisoners were welcomed by the international
community. Some governments and aid agencies made plans to increase
humanitarian assistance, such as to HIV/AIDS programs. Western governments kept
in place bans on investment or economic assistance to Burma. The United Nations was especially active
and appeared to play a critical role in the negotiations that preceded Suu
Kyi's release. The U.N. special rapporteur on human
rights in Burma, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, visited in
February, April and October, meeting with top generals, Suu Kyi, and ethnic
minority representatives. After the October visit, Pinheiro called for an
inquiry into rights violations in ethnic minority regions, and proposed that
the International Red Cross be allowed into all areas of conflict in Burma.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special envoy for Burma, Razali Ismail, visited the country in
December and August. Razali was widely viewed as active in bringing about Suu
Kyi's release, but was unable to convince the SPDC to resume the dialogue with
Suu Kyi that began in October 2001, or to declare a general amnesty for
political prisoners. After a visit in November 2002, Razali said he would quit
the post if the government did not begin talks with Suu Kyi aimed at political
reforms.
The International Labor
Organization (ILO) sent a high-level mission to Burma in February, which was prevented from
seeing Suu Kyi. This mission followed the unprecedented decision of the ILO in
2000 to recommend that ILO members review their economic ties with Burma and take appropriate action to ensure
that they did not abet what it called "widespread and systemic"
forced labor. In March, the ILO and the Burmese junta
agreed that the ILO would appoint a liaison officer to monitor Burma's pledges to end forced labor. On September 9, 2002, Ms. Perret-Nguyen
was appointed to assume this position beginning in October.
Australia dispatched Foreign Affairs Minister
Alexander Downer to Burma in October 2002. Downer was the first
Australian senior official to visit Burma in twenty years, and the first senior
Western official to visit after Suu Kyi's release. He reported after his visit
that Burma's generals had given him no timeframe for
political reform, and that Suu Kyi was increasingly pessimistic about the
prospects for genuine change.
China continued to build its massive economic
and military investment in Burma. In December 2001, President Jiang Zemin visited Burma and promised U.S.$100
million in new Chinese investment. That same month, authorities delivered a
digital high-resolution satellite ground station to the Burmese government. In
January and February 2002, the Chinese military delivered sizeable shipments of
arms to Burmese naval bases.
The European Union maintained its
sanctions on Burma, but explored possibilities for increased
humanitarian assistance. The E.U. was again the sponsor of critical Burma resolutions in both the U.N. Commission
on Human Rights, and in the U.N. General Assembly. A European Union troika
delegation visited Burma in March to continue a dialogue on
promoting political reconciliation with the opposition. In September, E.U.
delegates met with Suu Kyi and called on Burma to make progress toward democratization.
The Asia-Europe (ASEM) summit in Copenhagen in late September did not include Burma.
India initiated diplomatic talks with Burma in late 2001 aimed at joint action
against ethnic militant groups on their shared border. Senior Indian officials
said anonymously that the Indian government was trying to counter China's growing economic and military influence
in Burma.
Japan, Burma's largest single aid donor, announced
that it would give Burma debt relief of ¥1.8 billion (U.S.$14.4 million). Following Suu Kyi's release, Japan disbursed U.S.$4.9
million of a U.S.$29 million Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan
approved earlier for the renovation of a hydroelectric plant in eastern Burma. In August, the Japanese foreign minister
met with Suu Kyi and SPDC generals. She urged progress on democratization and
human rights, but made no further aid commitments.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad, the Malaysian government began a
repressive crackdown on dissidents and other refugees fleeing the Burmese junta
and seeking asylum in Malaysia. Rohingya Muslim refugees fled to Malaysia and Bangladesh. In June 2002, eight undocumented
Rohingya migrants entered the grounds of the local office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia and demanded asylum. In late July,
Malaysian police arrested 135 mostly undocumented Rohingya migrants seeking
asylum outside the same office. In August, after Suu Kyi called for Burma to move more quickly toward reform, Prime
Minister Mahathir visited Burma and publicly declared that Burma should not be rushed prematurely into
democracy.
Russia became increasingly active in the ongoing
Burmese military buildup, promising to help Burma to construct a center
for nuclear studies and a research nuclear reactor. The plans were described as
part of Russia's commitment to improving Burma's technology and education sectors, but
these facilities could also provide a basis for future Burmese efforts to
acquire the means to build nuclear weapons.
Thailand's relationship with Burma continued to be extremely tense, with
occasional outbreaks of violence along the border. At times, Thailand, the main destination for minorities,
political dissidents, rural people, and women and children fleeing violence in Burma, appeared to respond to Burma with efforts aimed at appeasing the
military junta. In November, a group of undocumented migrants and workers in
northern Thailand were repatriated to Burma, amidst allegations that some had been
tricked into signing repatriation forms. Some Burmese child soldiers tried to
escape forced conscription by deserting their armies and fleeing across the
border to Thailand. Thai authorities should identify such
children if arrested for illegal presence and pass them over to the U.N. High
Commission for Refugees so that they may seek asylum, but many such children
were unable to access such protection and continued to live in hiding, fearing
deportation to Burma.
In late December 2001, the Thai government
forcibly closed a major refugee camp housing political dissidents, and
conducted talks with Burmese authorities about repatriation plans. The problem
of illegal workers from Burma was gruesomely highlighted when the
bodies of twenty ethnic Karen villagers were found in the river that divides Burma from Thailand. Investigators later concluded that the
Karens were being smuggled in by a Thai couple, who discovered en route that
the laborers had suffocated and simply dumped their
bodies in the river. The border problems were highlighted again in June when Karen
gunmen, in a debt squabble, fired on a school bus full of Thai children,
killing two and injuring fourteen; this sparked a manhunt by Thai authorities
on the borders and greater ill-feeling toward Burmese refugees living in
Thailand.
In April, NGOs reported that about three
thousand Burmese migrants deported from Mae Sot, Thailand were forced to undergo HIV testing in a
holding center on the Burmese side of the border.
Those who tested positive were reportedly segregated and sent to a hospital in Rangoon. Both mandatory testing and the
segregation of HIV-positive persons violate international standards. The
Burmese government has yet to take clear steps in mounting a serious response
to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
In May, the Burmese-aligned United Wa State Army and Thai troops traded artillery fire across
the border. By July, Thailand and Burma were embroiled in a no-holds-barred media
war, in which Burmese state press attacked the Thai monarchy; Burmese
authorities also closed lucrative border crossings to Thai traders. In what was
seen by many as an attempt to placate the Burmese junta and re-open the
borders, Thai authorities in August raided pro-democracy groups and a church on
the border, detaining dozens of Burmese refugee activists and repatriating
them. The border was officially reopened in October 2002.
In April, forty-nine U.S. congressional representatives called on
the Burmese government to release imprisoned student leader Min Ko Naing. Congressional representatives and the U.S. State
Department issued statements condemning the Burmese military for raping girls
and women in Shan State. While lauding the release of Suu Kyi in
April, the Bush administration said in June that it would extend sanctions on Burma for another year. A U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) team visited Burma to explore the possibility of giving
HIV/AIDS assistance beyond the U.S.$1 million
currently given through NGOs and U.N. agencies.
In a groundbreaking ruling, a U.S. superior court judge in California ordered the Unocal corporation
to stand trial for alleged human rights abuses related to its pipeline project
in Burma. A jury trial was set for September 26, 2002 in Los Angeles, where Unocal is based. In a related
development, over thirty U.S. clothing manufacturers announced that
they would stop sourcing from Burma, and Marriott International announced
plans to withdraw from the two hotels it manages in Rangoon.
Neither the World Bank nor the Asian
Development Bank resumed any assistance to Burma. The SPDC failed to respond to the World
Bank's recommendations for major economic reforms. A team from the
International Monetary Fund visited Burma in July, and found continuing economic
problems and deteriorating social conditions.
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Human Rights Watch World Report 2003 – Burma Page 10 of 7
HRW World Report 2003 -
Burma.doc