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AP-Myanmar Condemned on Human Right



Subject: AP-Myanmar Condemned on Human Rights

Monday March 15 8:08 PM ET

Myanmar Condemned on Human Rights

GENEVA (AP) - Forced labor, beatings, torture and confiscation of land are
widespread in Myanmar and abuses are getting worse, a United Nations
investigator said in a report released Monday.

In his report to the annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission,
Rajsoomer Lallah said the country's military government was continuing to
intimidate its citizens and block free association and expression.

Lallah has not been allowed entry into Myanmar, also known as Burma, since
he was appointed to his post nearly three years ago, despite repeated
requests from the U.N. General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission.

He visited displaced people in the neighboring country of Thailand during
his investigations, and said people were being driven off their land and
made to do unpaid work for soldiers. ``Even children are forced to do this
kind of work,'' the report said.

``Prisoners are said to be denied adequate food, in amount and quality, and
health care, to be housed in unsanitary and degrading conditions and
subjected to cruel disciplinary practices or torture,'' he added.

He said harassment and arrests of members of the opposition National League
for Democracy by the military regime had been going on since 1995. In
September, more than 650 of the opposition party's members were arrested
following attempts to convene a parliament in accordance with the results of
the 1990 general election, which the party won overwhelmingly.