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- U.S. Report Slams Myanmar /Burma
- Subject: - U.S. Report Slams Myanmar /Burma
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 18:36:00
Subject: - U.S. Report Slams Myanmar /Burma Human Rights Record
U.S. Report Slams Myanmar Human Rights Record
Reuters
27-FEB-99
BANGKOK, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The United States has
criticised Myanmar's military government for serious
human
rights violations including torture, arbitrary detentions
and
forced labour.
The U.S. State Department said in its annual report on
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, that the ruling
generals
ran a "highly authoritarian military regime" which was
holding
more than 1,000 political prisoners.
"The government's longstanding severe repression of human
rights continued during the year (1998)," said the
report,
which was released on the Internet on Saturday.
"Citizens continued to live subject at any time and
without
appeal to the arbitrary and sometimes brutal dictates of
the
military dictatorship. Citizens do not have the right to
change
their government," it said.
The report said there were credible reports, particularly
in
ethnic minority-dominated areas, that soldiers committed
serious human rights abuses, "including extra-judicial
killings
and rape."
"Disappearances continued, and members of the security
forces beat and otherwise abused detainees," it said.
"Arbitrary arrests and detentions for expression of
dissenting
political views continued with increasing frequency in an
effort to intimidate the populace into submission in the
face
of deepening economic and political instability," it
said.
The report said some 200 members of parliament elected in
Myanmar's last democratic polls in 1990 had been detained
since September 1998.
Those polls were won by a wide margin by the
pro-democracy National League for Democracy (NLD), led
by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but the
military ignored the result, saying the country was not
ready
for democracy.
The reports said Myanmar was poor with an average per
capita income of about $400, which it said was equivalent
to
about $800 on a purchasing power parity basis.
Myanmar officials were unavailable for immediate comment
on the U.S. report.