"Thousands of ethnic minority people have fled Burma to escape the indiscriminate brutality of the army?s counter-insurgency operations. Most of the refugees are from the Karen State, a mountainous area bordering on Thailand. Others come from the Mon and Kachin States and other parts of Burma. Their plight has received little attention from the international community. In this report Amnesty International publishes, for the first time, a detailed account of the widespread extrajudicial executions, and torture and harsh treatment inflicted on these people by soldiers operating in defiance of both Burmese and international law...Since 1984 the Burmese army has waged intensive counter-insurgency campaigns against various armed opposition groups, including minority movements fighting for greater autonomy in the Karen, Kachin and Mon States. The civilian population has suffered heavily in counter-insurgency drives. Most of the people living in these remote and mountainous states are illiterate villagers making a living out of rice farming or petty trading. To deny the insurgents any possible logistical or other support the army has imposed harsh restrictions on the villagers? lives, including controls on their movement, residence and wealth. Whole villages have been regrouped in "strategic hamlets" - fenced settlements - under strict curfew. These restrictions impose intolerable hardships on rice farmers, whose livelihood depends on free movement to tend their crops in often far-off fields, and on itinerant traders who ply their wares between villages. People are forced to risk their lives in order to survive. If they are found in places declared off-limits by the army, or on roads or in fields after curfew, they are suspected of links with the insurgents and may be summarily shot or taken into custody and tortured. Mutilated bodies are sometimes left by roadsides and in the fields...1. SUMMARY 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 SOURCES AND THE SCALE OF ABUSES 2.2 BACKGROUND 2.2.1 HISTORICAL SKETCH 2.2.2 KAREN INSURGENCY 2.2.3 KACHIN AND MON INSURGENCIES 2.3 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL?S POSITION ON ABUSES BY ARMED OPPOSITION FORCES 12 3. EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION OF KAREN BY THE ARMY 3.1 CIRCUMSTANCES AND METHODS OF EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION 3.2 EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION FOR DISOBEYING RESTRICTIONS ON LIVELIHOOD 3.3 EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION OF PORTERS AND GUIDES 3.4 EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION FOR OTHER REASONS 4. TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF KAREN BY THE ARMY 4.1 CIRCUMSTANCES AND METHODS OF TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT 4.2 TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT DURING INTERROGATION 4.3 TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT AS PUNISHMENT 4.4 TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF WIVES TAKEN AS HOSTAGES 5. TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF KACHIN AND MON BY THE ARMY AND POLICE 5.1 KACHIN CASES 5.2 MON CASES 6. BURMESE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RECOMMENDATIONS 6.1 BURMESE LEGAL SAFEGUARDS AND REMEDIES RELATED TO HUMAN 6.1.1 PROVISIONS AGAINST TORTURE AND UNLAWFUL KILLING 6.1.2 FREEDOM FROM ARBITRARY ARREST AND DETENTION 6.1.3 THE JUDICIARY 6.1.4 POLITICAL OFFENCES INVOLVING VIOLENCE 6.1.5 EMERGENCY ABRIDGEMENT OF RIGHTS 6.1.6 INSPECTION AND COMPLAINTS PROCEDURES 6.2 INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS 6.3 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL?S COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE GOVERNMENT 6.4 GOVERNMENT REJECTION OF ALLEGATIONS OF EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION 6.5 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL?S RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT 6.5.1 HIGH-LEVEL GOVERNMENT STATEMENTS AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS 6.5.2 FULL GOVERNMENT INQUIRY/PROSECUTION OF RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITIES 6.5.3 LEGISLATIVE REFORM AND ENFORCEMENT 6.5.4 IMPROVED TRAINING OF SECURITY FORCES 6.5.5 COMPENSATION FOR VICTIMS AND THEIR RELATIVES 6.5.6 PROVIDING ACCESS AND INFORMATION TO INTERNATIONAL BODIES 6.5.7 RATIFICATION OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS 6.5.8 DIVISION OF DETENTION AND INTERROGATION RESPONSIBILITIES 6 5.9 COMPREHENSIVE PUBLIC RECORDS OF ARREST AND DETENTION..... APPENDIX 1: REPORTED VICTIMS OF EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS; APPPENDIX 2: REPORTED VICTIMS OF TORTURE OR OTHER SEVERE ILL-TREATMENT.