"MYANMAR: NO HUMAN RIGHTS PROBLEM".

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Date: Fri, 29 Jul 1994 22:31:39 -0700

Subject: MYANMAR: NO HUMAN RIGHTS PROBLEM.

/* Written 10:39 AM  Jul 27, 1994 by hnaylor@xxxxxxxxxxx in igc:misc.activism.
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This News Service is posted by the International Secretariat of
Amnesty International, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ (Tel +44-71-
413-5500, Fax +44-71-956-1157)

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 AI INDEX: ASA 16/WU 05/94
22 JULY 1994

MYANMAR GOVERNMENT DECLARES IT HAS NO HUMAN RIGHTS PROBLEM, WHILE
ITS ARMY TORCHES A CIVILIAN REFUGEE CAMP

Only 24 hours after Myanmar army soldiers attacked a civilian
refugee camp, that country's foreign minister today told
journalists that Myanmar has no human rights problem, according to
Amnesty International.

      Myanmar's Foreign Minister, Ohn Gyaw, told journalists at
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok that
he would be happy to meet the United Nations Secretary General to
discuss human rights and democratic reform in Myanmar.  He also
told correspondents that he did "not believe that Myanmar has a
human rights problem".

      Less than 24 hours earlier, 360 soldiers from 62nd battalion
of the Myanmar army (the tatmadaw) entered the Halockhani civilian
refugee camp on the border with Thailand.  After taking over a
western section of the camp, populated by civilian refugees from
the Mon ethnic minority, they tried to advance and occupy the main
camp.

      When soldiers from the armed wing of the New Mon State Party
moved into the area and stopped them, the tatmadaw soldiers
returned to the western section of the camp and set fire to half
of the 120 houses. As they left the camp, they took with them 16
men, including the civilian leaders of the camp. Half of them were
handcuffed.

      Amnesty International is gravely concerned for the safety of
the 16 men currently in the hands of the tatmadaw, particularly
because the organization has received many reliable reports of
torture and killing of civilians by the tatmadaw.

      Many of the remaining residents of the camp's western
section have fled in fear over the border to Thailand.

      "If the Myanmar government is serious in its offer to talk
to the United Nations Secretary General about human rights, it
must prove its good intentions by ensuring an end to such
incidents", Amnesty International said.

      The news of this attack came in the same week as the
international community and human rights groups focused on the
fifth anniversary of the house arrest of the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, one of 58 known prisoners of
conscience currently detained in Myanmar.

      Amnesty International is also calling on the Myanmar
government to  demonstrate its stated commitment to human rights
by immediately and unconditionally releasing Aung San Suu Kyi and
all the 57 other known prisoners of conscience currently detained
in Myanmar.

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