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Reuters-Myanmar abuses continue des



Subject: Reuters-Myanmar abuses continue despite ASEAN --Amnesty 

Myanmar abuses continue despite ASEAN --Amnesty
06:36 a.m. Jun 29, 1999 Eastern
BANGKOK, June 30 (Reuters) - Amnesty International on Wednesday accused
Myanmar's ruling military of widespread abuses against ethnic minorities --
including killings, torture and rape -- and said its record had worsened
since it joined ASEAN.

A report issued by the London-based human rights group said the military had
killed ``dozens'' of unarmed farmers from Karen, Karenni and Shan ethnic
groups in the past year, and forced large numbers off their land or to do
unpaid labour for the army.

The report said ethnic Karen refugees interviewed had described two dozen
killings of relatives and friends between mid-1998 and February. Shan
refugees interviewed by Amnesty in February described 20 extrajudicial
executions by the army, and

Karenni refugees several more.

Amnesty said such abuses had continued despite Myanmar's 1997 entry to the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

``ASEAN countries then claimed that such a move would encourage the SPDC to
improve its human rights record,'' it said, referring to Yangon's ruling
State Peace and Development Council.

``In fact the opposite has been true,'' the report said.

``The SPDC has stepped up its repression of the opposition party, the
National League for Democracy, and increased forcible relocation programmes.

``Forced labour in all seven ethnic minority areas continues at a high level
and forced portering -- one of the harshest forms of forced labour -- occurs
wherever there are counter-insurgency activities,'' Amnesty said.

It called on ASEAN -- which groups Myanmar with Thailand, the Philippines,
Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and Malaysia -- to
pressure Yangon at a ministerial meeting next month.

``As ASEAN members gather in Singapore in July 1999 for their annual
Ministerial Meeting, it behoves them to come up with a new strategy for
dealing with the SPDC's intransigence regarding human rights,'' Amnesty
said.

It also said China should cease arms sales to Myanmar.

In the section of the report covering Karen State, a woman reported finding
the body of her 12-year-old niece, who had a gunshot entering her vagina and

exiting at her chin.

It said the girl was alleged to have been raped by a major, then managed to
escape, was recaptured, raped again, and shot. The major paid her family a
sack of rice, a measure of sugar, a tin of condensed milk and 100 kyat
(about 30 U.S. cents) in compensation.

Another woman described how troops beheaded her brother after accusing him
of passing information to the Karen National Union insurgents and beating
him unconscious.

In another case, the report said, a Karen widow saw her son shot dead by
soldiers when he tried to stop them beating her.

The Amnesty report documented killings and abuses by ethnic insurgents
against Myanmar citizens and those considered enemies of their movements.

Amnesty said it had recent reports the KNU had killed people, outside of
combat, in both Myanmar and Thai territory, and it had also received
accounts of ill-treatment and torture by the KNU.

Amnesty said it was unable to confirm the reports as it was not allowed
access to Myanmar, but believed them to be credible.

In one incident in Shan State in late October, it said 10 ethnic Burman
civilians were reported to have been killed by an unknown Shan armed group.

It called on all armed groups in Myanmar to ``respect minimum standards of
international humanitarian law and to put an end to abuses such as
deliberate and arbitrary killings, torture and hostage taking.''