Rights group sees "improvements"

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Subject: Rights group sees "improvements"


Rights group sees "improvements"
Associated Press

Burma's ruling military has made "incremental improvements" in the 
country's human rights, but arrests of critics, torture and unfair trials 
continued last year, a human rights group said in a report received 
yesterday.
  The London-based Amnesty International said positive steps included the 
release of some 2,000 political prisoners between April 1992 and the end 
of last year and the abolition of military tribunals.
  The Burmese military, which seized power after quelling a 1988 
pro-democracy uprising with guns, also agreed to work with the 
International Red Cross to train military officers in international 
humanitarian law, Amnesty said.
  "However, (Amnesty) remains concerned that a system of repression is 
still in place which is being used to violate the fundamental rights of 
the people" of Burma, the report said.
  The Amnesty report covers events in the Southeast Asian Nation during 
the second half of 1993.
  It said that torture and ill-treatment of political prisoners as well 
as ethnic minorities fighting the central government remained common. 
The report cited repressive measures against the Karen, one of the main 
minority groups., during anti-insurgency operations as well as inhuman 
treatment of porters forced to work for the military.
  Although it welcomed the releaser of the 2,000 political prisoners, 
Amnesty said several hundred were still detained and those released are 
"routinely subjected to intimidation, which takes the form of 
surveillance, threats and interrogation."
  Similar measures the report charged, were being used agains delegates 
to the national convention to draft a constitution for the country.