"Throughout 2002, SPDC personnel continued to arbitrarily detain persons across Burma for illegal association with groups seen as anti-government. In the aftermath of the ‘global war on terror,? the SPDC began to structure its anti-opposition activity within the framework of countering terrorist organizations. In areas of ethnic insurgency, these detentions were common and in most cases individuals suspected of such illegal association were seized, detained, interrogated, and sometimes tortured and killed without warrant or evidence against them. In 2002, there were also numerous reports of individuals who disappeared following arrest and detention, many of whom are feared dead. Human rights organizations, such as the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), have argued that the current definition of ‘political prisoner? used in the context of Burma is too narrow and excludes the thousands of ethnic minority villagers who are routinely arrested, tortured, and imprisoned under Articles 17/1 (contact with illegal organizations) and Article 17/2 (rising against the State)..."