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BURMA: some improvements in HR
- Subject: BURMA: some improvements in HR
- From: strider@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 12 Feb 1994 10:22:00
Subject: BURMA: some improvements in HR
/* Written 8:53 pm Jan 27, 1994 by hnaylor@xxxxxxxxxxx in igc:ai.general */
/* ---------- "BURMA: some improvements in HR" ---------- */
Subject: BURMA: some improvements in HR
## author : tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
## date : 25.01.94
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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.