AI report (summary): Kayin (karen)

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Subject: AI report (summary): Kayin (karen) state: the killings continue

>From:	CCPNGW::"owner-amnesty-l@xxxxxx"  2-APR-1996 14:16:17.71
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amnesty international


MYANMAR
 KAYIN (KAREN) STATE: THE KILLINGS CONTINUE

APRIL 1996                  SUMMARY   AI INDEX: ASA 16/10/96 

                                                 DISTR: SC/CO


After over seven years of military rule by the State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the Myanmar security
forces continue to commit gross human rights violations with
impunity. The catalogue of these violations is extensive.
Over 1,000 political prisoners remain behind bars, the
majority of whom have been tried after unfair trials. Amnesty
International believes that most of these people may be
prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely for the peaceful
expression of their non-violent opinions.  Prison conditions
are so deplorable as to constitute cruel, inhuman and
degrading treatment.  Martial law decrees which prohibit
gatherings of more than five people and forbid public
criticism of the military remain in force. Opposition
political parties operate under severe restrictions and in
the last five months dozens of their members have been
arrested. 

       The security forces have not only singled out
government critics for repression but also regularly target
ethnic minorities for widespread abuse.  Ethnic minorities,
who comprise one-third of Myanmar~s population and live for
the most part in border areas, are also victims of human
rights violations.  Security forces have subjected members of
the Karen, Mon, Shan, Karenni and Rohingya minorities to
torture and ill-treatment in the course of forced labour and
portering, and have unlawfully killed unarmed civilians
during counter-insurgency operations against ethnic minority
armed opposition groups.  Because the armed ethnic minority
group the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Burmese army
have not yet reached a ceasefire agreement, Karen civilians
continue to be caught in the midst of the army~s counter-
insurgency activities. 

      In the last eight years the Burmese army, known as the
tatmadaw, has killed unarmed civilians as part of its
counter-insurgency campaigns against the KNU in the Kayin
(Karen) State, eastern Myanmar.  Karen civilians who were
fleeing from troops as they approached a village have been
shot dead in what appears to be a de facto shoot-to-kill
policy of anyone who runs from the tatmadaw. Others have been
killed reportedly because the tatmadaw suspected these
individuals of supporting the KNU in some way. The army has
killed still other victims seemingly at random, in an
apparent effort to terrorize villagers into severing their
alleged connections with KNU soldiers. Amnesty International
is gravely concerned by these killings; they are part of a
long-standing pattern of extrajudicial executions by the
tatmadaw of members of the Karen ethnic minority.

      Families and associates of victims, who had escaped to
neighbouring Thailand, told Amnesty International about
extrajudicial killings of 16 Karen villagers, mainly in Papun
district, northern Kayin State, during 1995.  Extrajudicial
killings are the most serious of a range of human rights
violations occurring in the context of the tatmadaw~s
counter-insurgency operations. They violate the most
fundamental of human rights, the right to life, which is
guaranteed by Article 3 of the Declaration of Human Rights.

      In an apparent effort to break civilian links with or
support for the KNU, the army has also begun a program of
forcible relocations of ethnic Karen villages in Papun
district to Papun town and nearby areas. The tatmadaw has
reportedly sent threatening letters to village headmen,
enclosed with a bullet and a chili pepper, which is believed
by recipients to be symbolic of the future that awaits them
if they do not co-operate. Civilians who have been subjected
to such removals have not been compensated for their loss of
land and homes. The tatmadaw has also targeted ethnic Karen
civilians for unpaid forced portering and labour duties, in
the course of which the Karen have sometimes been ill-
treated. This pattern of killings, forced portering and
labour, looting and burning of villages, and killings of
Karen civilians, appears to have occurred in other districts
in the Kayin State. Detailed but unconfirmed reports from
Toungoo, Nyaunglebin, and Thaton districts in 1995 indicate
that such a wide pattern of human rights violations may be
part of the tatmadaw~s overall strategy of destroying
civilian links or support for the KNU.

      This report focuses solely on human rights violations
committed by the tatmadaw and abuses committed by its de
facto allies, the Democratic Kayin Buddhist Army (DKBA)
against Karen civilians.  Amnesty International is also
concerned about possible abuses committed by the KNU;
however, without access to Myanmar, the organization has not
been able to confirm such abuses to the same degree of
certainty.


KEYWORDS: EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS1 / MILITARY1 / NON-GOVERNMENTAL ENTITIES1 /
HARASSMENT / TORTURE/ILL-TREATMENT / FORCED LABOUR / ETHNIC GROUPS / RELIGIOUS
GROUPS / WOMEN / FARMERS / PHOTOGRAPHS
This report summarizes a 17-page document (6,804 words),:
MYANMAR: Kayin (Karen) State: The Killings Continue (AI
Index: ASA 16/10/96) issued by Amnesty International in April
1996. Anyone wishing further details or to take action on
this issue should consult the full document.

INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT, 1 EASTON STREET, LONDON WC1X 8DJ,
UNITED KINGDOM


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