U.N. rights investigator says Burma

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Subject: U.N. rights investigator says Burma kills,tortures

U.N. rights investigator says Burma kills,tortures



Copyright © 1997 Reuter Information Service 

GENEVA (Mar 21, 1997 09:02 a.m. EST) - A U.N. human rights investigator on
Friday accused Burma's
military government of arbitrary killings and torture during forced
relocations and counter-insurgency
operations in ethnic minority regions.

Rajsmoor Lallah, a Mauritian lawyer who serves as U.N. special rapporteur on
Burma, also said that
Burma's "autocratic" power structure resulted in denial of fundamental civil
and political rights, and that
many political leaders remained in detention.

His report, a catalogue of alleged abuses, was submitted to the U.N. Human
Rights Commission, which is
holding its annual six-week session in Geneva. The 53-member forum named him
last year to investigate
allegations of massive violations in Burma.

But Lallah said that despite three requests to the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs to allow him to visit, he had
received no reply. His 29-page report was based on information from
governmental, individual and
non-governmental sources.

"Detailed reports and photographs seen by the Special Rapporteur lead him to
conclude that extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary executions, the practice of torture, portering and
forced labour continue to occur in
Myanmar (Burma), particularly in the context of development programs and of
counter-insurgency
operations in minority-dominated regions."

Since 1988, more than one million people in Burma have been forcibly
relocated, without any
compensation, to new towns, villages or relocation camps "in which they are
essentially detained," Lallah
said, citing estimates by local and international non-governmental
organizations (NGOs).

"In order to cut the main links between the insurgent groups and the
civilian population, SLORC has
forced entire communities living in the border area between Myanmar and
Thailand to move to relocation
sites which are subject to tight military control," he said, referring to
the ruling State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC).

Lallah said that arbitrary detentions were taking place on a wide scale,
backed by laws making such
violations legal and coupled with the absence of an independent judiciary.

"The Special Rapporteur expresses his deep concern at the continued
detention of many political
prisoners, in particular elected representatives, and the recent arrests and
harassment of other supporters
of democratic groups in Myanmar, culminating at the end of September 1996 in
the massive arrests of
NLD supporters and the virtual blockade of the Secretary-General of the NLD
in her compound," he
added.

He was referring to the National League for Democracy (NLD) and Burma's
democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel laureate whom the government placed under virtual
house arrest in December for
what it said was her own safety after student street demonstrations.

"Aung San Suu Kyi's correspondence is said to be studied, her phone
reportedly tapped and her meetings
with foreigners closely monitored," Lallah wrote.

Suu Kyi, who was under official house arrest for six years for her criticism
of the military government,
was released in July 1995. At a news conference in Rangoon this month she
lashed out at what she called
continued repression of the opposition.

The NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 elections but did not take power
because the SLORC never
recognized the result.

"On the basis of virtually unanimous reports and other information, the
Special Rapporteur concludes that
there is essentially no freedom of thought, opinion, expression or
association in Myanmar," Lallah said.

"The absolute power of SLORC is exercised to silence opposition and penalise
those holding dissenting
views or beliefs," he said, adding people lived in a "climate of fear."