Torture, murder a routine in Myanma

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Subject: Torture, murder a routine in Myanmar (Burma)

Subject: Torture, murder a routine in Myanmar
 
(The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, March 15 1996)
Torture, murder a routine in Myanmar
GENEVA, March 14 (DPA)
 
Forced labour, torture and killings remain widespread under the military 
regime in Myanmar, special rapporteur Yozo Yakota of Japan said in a 
report to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights issued in Geneva 
yesterday.
 
Detail reports, photographs, video recordings and variety of physical 
evidence seen by the special rapporteur indicated that the practice of 
forced labour, forced portering, torture and arbitrary killing are still 
widespread in Myanmar, the report said.
 
They seem to be occurring in the context of development programmes and of 
counter-insurgency operations in ethnic minority regions, the report 
said. Many of the victims of such acts belong to ethnic nationality 
populations.
 
In particular, They are peasants, women, daily wage-earners and other 
peaceful civilians who do not have enough money to avoid mistreatment by 
bribing, it said.
 
Report from non-governmental sources have described cases of civilians 
who were allegedly executed when they resisted becoming porter for the 
army or were beaten to death while being used as porters, the report added.
 
The army is also reported to have executed civilians for failure to 
provide goods or services demanded. Those would include labour, food, 
money or arms, the report said.
 
Although 2,000 political prisoners had allegedly been freed since April 
1992, hundreds of other political prisoners were still in jail serving 
long prison terms.
 
The due process of law was generally not respected in the Asian 
countries. Numerous testimonies alleged the absence of counsel during 
trial, the absence of time and all other such attendant guarantees, the 
report said.
 
The practice of torture remains widespread.
 
Report of torture and inhuman treatment in the past year include severe 
beatings, shackling, near suffocation, burning, stabbing, rubbing of salt 
and chemical into open wounds and psychological torture, including threat 
of death, it said.
 
Detainees were often forced to sleep on cold concrete and many of them 
suffered from sickness and serious diseases.
 
In one cause, prisoner were forced to sleep on concrete floors without 
mats or blankets in "military dog cells", small cells where military dogs 
are normally kept.
 
Myanmarese continued to be deprived of fundamental human rights like the 
right of freedom of expression and association.
 
In the province of Rakhine, the local Muslim population did not even 
enjoy the unrestricted right to citizenship, it said.
 
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