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Amnesty condemns Burma human rights
Amnesty condemns Burma human rights
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Bangkok: Burma's ruling junta has targeted ethnic minorities with
forced labour, forced relocations, arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial
killings, torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International said yesterday.
Human rights violations also affected ethnic Burmese, who
constitute the majority in Burma, and included rape, confiscation of food
and domestic animals, imposition of arbitrary taxes, and the burning of
villages, the human rights watchdog said.
The abuses continued, Amnesty said, although its Myanmar: Human
Rights Violations Against Ethnic Minorities report, to be released today,
dealt mostly with events last year in the eastern Mon and Shan States and
Tenasserim division.
Ethnic minorities have been seized to serve for arbitrary periods
as porters for the army on a widespread basis, subject to torture and
ill-treatment at the whim of soldiers who often suspected they supported
opposition groups, Amnesty reported.
"Types of ill-treatment included repeated beatings with bamboo
sticks or rifle butts, and deprivation of food, water, rest, and medical
treatment," and repeated rape, sometimes ending in the death of the
victims, the report said.
"Others... have been extrajudically killed if they attemped to
escape or were unable to carry their load," it added.
Hundreds of thousands of Burmese from virtually all ethnic groups
have also been repeatedly detained and forced to do hard labour, Amnesty
said.
[AFP, 8 August 1996].
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