Burma's Repression Draws World cond

[tun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Burma's Repression Draws World condemnation

DATE=        MARCH 17, 1994
TYPE=        EDITORIAL
NUMBER=      0-05808
TITLE=       BURMA'S REPRESSION DRAWS WORLD CONDEMNATION

CONTENT=THIS IS THE ONLY EDITORIAL BEING RELEASED FOR BROADCAST 
MARCH 17, 1994.

ANNCR:
    Next, an editorial reflecting the views of the U.S. 
Government.

VOICE:

    Once again, the United Nations Human Rights Commission has 
condemned the military regime in burma for its repression of 
human rights.  In a resolution passed March 9th, the Commission 
called on the burmese junta to release all political prisoners 
and permit the establishment of a democratic government based on 
the results of the May 1990 elections.

    The commission also extended the mandate of special 
investigator Yozo Yokota.  In a recent report, Mr. Yokota chargeD
the burmese military with atrocities against burmese villagers, 
especially ethnic minorities.  Rape, torture, deportation, forced
labor and summary execution are among the "extremely serious 
human rights violations" condemned by the U-N Human Rights 
Commission.
    Because the burmese junta continues to bar the international 
committee of the red cross from visiting detainees, information 
on conditions in burmese prisons is scarce.  what is known is 
that political detainees are held incommunicado, with family and 
legal counsel unable to visit during the protracted pre-trial 
period.  Starvation and sleep deprivation are the most common 
forms of mistreatment.  Political prisoners are reportedly 
subjected to severe beatings, electrical shocks to the genitals, 
suffocation and cigarette burns during interrogation.

    Though the regime has released some political prisoners in 
recent months, hundreds of others have been detained.  In octobeR
1993, twelve pro-democracy activists were sentenced to twenty 
years in prison for distributing opposition political literature.
They included the writer ma thida and aung khin sint, a delegate 
to burma's constitutional convention.

    The regime continues to hold nobel peace-prize winner Aung 
San SUu Kyi under house arrest.  Now in her fifth year of 
detention, Aung San Suu Kyi has come to symbolize the plight of 
burma's democracy movement.  As geraldine ferraro, head of the 
U.S. delegation to the U-N Human Rights Commission, said, "such 
is the repression imposed by the military government that much oF
the country operates as if it, too, were under [house] arrest."
    The U.S. calls on the generals in rangoon to end their war 
against the people of burma.  National conventions handpicked by 
the regime are no substitute for democratic assemblies elected by
the people.

ANNCR:

    THAT WAS AN EDITORIAL REFLECTING THE VIEWS OF THE U.S. 
GOVERNMENT.

16-Mar-94 3:29 PM EST (2029 UTC)