A Special Report to the 55th Sessio

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Subject: A Special Report to the 55th Session of the United Nations

Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, 1999 Part 1 
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Dear BurmaNetters,
                                      The following document is a Special
Report to the 55th Session of the United Nations Commision on Human Rights
in Geneva, 1999. The document is too large to fit onto Burma Net as one
piece. Therefore, I am dividing the document into two parts. The report is
by Freedom House. Burma has been reported as one of the most repressive
regimes of 1998.

Sincerely,

Julien Moe

THE MOST REPRESSIVE REGIMES OF 1998
 Part 1
Source:Freedom House
A Special Report to the 55th Session of the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights in Geneva, 1999

 

AFGHANISTAN     BURMA     CUBA  
EQUATORIAL GUINEA     IRAQ  

LIBYA     NORTH KOREA  

SAUDI ARABIA     SOMALIA     SUDAN  

SYRIA     TURKMENISTAN     VIETNAM 

    KOSOVO     TIBET


 

Burma 
Political Rights: 7 
Civil Liberties: 7 
Status: Not Free 

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Overview: 
    Ten years after crushing pro-democracy demonstrations, in 1998 the
military remained firmly in control of Burma behind a younger and more
savvy, but equally brutal, generation of officers.  
    Following the Japanese occupation in World War II, Burma achieved
independence from Britain in 1948. The army overthrew an elected government
in 1962 amidst an economic crisis and insurgencies by ethnic rebel groups.
During the next 26 years, General Ne Win's military rule impoverished what
had been one of Southeast Asia's richest countries. In 1988, an estimated
3,000 people were killed in an army crackdown on massive, peaceful
pro-democracy demonstrations. Army leaders General Saw Maung and Brigadier
General Khin Nyunt created the State Law and Order Restoration Council
(SLORC) to rule the country.  
    In 1990, in the first free elections in three decades, the opposition
National League for Democracy (NLD) won 392 of the 485 parliamentary seats.
The SLORC refused to cede power and jailed hundreds of NLD members. In 1992,
it implemented superficial liberalizations, including the replacement of
hardliner Saw Maung with General Than Shwe as prime minister and junta
leader. In 1993, however, the limits of the reforms became apparent as a
sham constitutional convention drafted guidelines granting the military 25
percent of seats in a future parliament and formalizing its leading role in
politics. Since then, the convention has met sporadically. In 1995, the
SLORC released Aung San Suu Kyi, the NLD leader and the country's preeminent
pro-democracy campaigner, after six years of house arrest. The generals have
rejected the 1992 Nobel Laureate's calls for a dialogue on democratic
reform. Authorities quelled student demonstrations in 1996 by closing
universities and detaining scores of people. 
    In November 1997, the SLORC reconstituted itself as the 19-member State
Peace and Development Council, elevated relatively junior commanders, and
sidelined at least 14 of the 21 SLORC members. By early 1998, the junta had
also removed numerous corrupt ministers in an apparent effort to improve its
international image, attract foreign investment, and promote an end to
U.S.-led sanctions. Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt, the intelligence chief
and formally one of the junta's top five members, continues to be the
regime's strongman. In April, the regime reportedly detained nearly 250
lawyers, Buddhist monks, and student leaders in an intensified crackdown. It
also reportedly sentenced six pro-democracy activists to death after
claiming that they had been caught with explosives.  
    In May, the NLD called for the parliament elected in 1990 to be convened
by August. The military responded by ordering NLD members of parliament
outside of Rangoon to report to local authorities twice a day. In July, the
NLD reported that the junta had detained 79 elected representatives for
defying the restrictions. In August, riot police reportedly arrested dozens
of anti-junta protesters at Rangoon University, although in September,
authorities allowed thousands of students to hold rare protests at two other
universities in Rangoon. 
    The ethnic minorities that comprise more than one-third of Burma's
population have been fighting for autonomy from the Burman-dominated central
government since the late 1940s. Since 1989, the SLORC has co-opted 15
ethnic rebel armies with ceasefire deals that allow them to maintain their
weapons and territory. Many warlords have become drug traffickers and have
helped to make Burma one of the world's largest heroin exporters while
pouring the proceeds into Rangoon real estate and other business ventures.
In recent years, the country's dry season has seen intense fighting between
the army and the predominantly-Christian Karen National Union (KNU), the
largest active insurgency. In 1997 and 1998, regular troops and the
Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a pro-regime militia of KNU defectors,
attacked Karen refugee camps inside Thailand and destroyed homes.  
Political Rights and Civil Liberties: 
    Burma is effectively a garrison state ruled by one of the most
repressive regimes in the world. The junta controls the judiciary, and the
rule of law is nonexistent. The SLORC has imprisoned or driven into exile
most of its vocal opponents; severely restricted freedoms of speech, press,
association and other fundamental rights; and used a tightly controlled mass
movement, the Union Solidarity Development Association, to monitor forced
labor quotas, report on citizens, and intimidate opponents. The army is
responsible for arbitrary beatings and killings of civilians; the forced,
unpaid use of civilians as porters, laborers, and human mine sweepers under
brutal conditions, with soldiers sometimes killing weakened porters or
executing those who resist; summary executions of civilians who refuse to
provide food or money to military units; arrests of civilians as alleged
insurgents or insurgent sympathizers; and widespread incidents of rape. In
April, the UN Special Rapporteur for Burma said that, based on
well-documented reports, "extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions,
the practice of torture, portering, and forced labor continue to occur in
Myanmar, particularly in the context of development programs and of
counterinsurgency operations in minority-dominated regions."  
    Gross human rights violations during counterinsurgency operations
against ethnic rebel groups have driven more than 100,000 mainly Karen,
Karenni, Shan, and Mon refugees into Thailand. In January, Danish doctors
who examined 200 Burmese refugees in Thailand reported that two-thirds were
victims of rape and other abuses. Fighting has internally displaced
thousands of other ethnic minorities. The Burmese army also forcibly
relocates ethnic minority villagers as part of its military strategy,
generally without providing food or shelter at the new sites. In April,
Amnesty International reported that, since 1996, the army has forcibly
relocated at least 300,000 villagers as part of its counterinsurgency
operations against the Shan States Army in Shan state. Soldiers have burned
homes, killed hundreds of Shan civilians, and subjected others to beatings,
rape, and forced porterage and other labor. Amnesty International also
reported that armed opposition groups have committed killings and other
abuses against ethnic Burmans in Shan state. Ethnic Chin communities on the
western border also face forced labor and other abuses.  
Source:Freedom House
End of Part 1