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AFP-Myanmar junta blasts Amnesty as



Subject: AFP-Myanmar junta blasts Amnesty as dupe of terrorists

Myanmar junta blasts Amnesty as dupe of terrorists
BANGKOK, June 30 (AFP) - Myanmar lashed out at human rights group Amnesty
International on Wednesday, saying its report on alleged abuses in the
military state was part of a "smear campaign" by ethnic terrorists.
A junta spokesman said Amnesty's report released earlier Wednesday was based
on interviews with "so-called refugees" who were in fact supporters of
"ethnic terrorist groups".

"These same terrorists are also exploiting Amnesty and using it as a
platform to attack the government in their smear campaign," the spokesman
said in a statement received here.

The Amnesty report focused on three remote border states -- home to Karen,
Shan and Karenni minorities -- and was based on interviews with refugees in
Thailand.

It accuses Myanmar's military of systematic human rights abuses in its
effort to suppress armed ethnic dissent in areas controlled or contested by
rebel armies.

Abuses detailed in the 50-page report included the torture of civilians, use
of slave labour, forced relocation of villages, and rape. It said there were
also reports of rights violations by the rebel armies.

All of the allegations against the junta have been widely documented by
Amnesty and various other human rights watchdogs as well as international
bodies such as the United Nations over a number of years.

Addressing only the issues of forced labour and relocation, the junta
spokesman denied the allegations.

He countered Amnesty's claim that children were forced to work on the
construction of a temple, saying their labour was voluntary.

"The workforce comes to participate of their own free will and according to
Buddhist belief ... This can in fact be regarded as freedom of religion," he
said.

He said ethnic villagers were not being uprooted and forced to move as
claimed by the refugees in Amnesty's report. He said they were being
temporarily taken "out of harm's way".

"This is done to protect them from being terrorised by the armed insurgent
groups," he said.

The junta has signed a number of tenuous peace deals with ethnic armies this
decade but several remain staunchly opposed to the Yangon regime and have
continued their struggle for independent states or autnomous regions.


Many have sided with Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose
National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a sweeping victory in
elections in 1990 but has never been allowed to form a government.

In what has become a growing trend among observers of Myanmar's human rights
situation, Amnesty appealed to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) to address the issue.

It urged ASEAN's ministerial meeting in Singapore next month to develop a
human rights strategy specifically targeting Myanmar.

"These (human rights) issues have become particularly acute since Myanmar's
admission (to ASEAN) in July 1997," the report said.

"ASEAN countries then claimed that such a move would encourage the (junta)
to improve its human rights record. In fact the opposite has been true."

Amnesty's report echoes claims by Aung San Suu Kyi that ASEAN membership
gave the junta new confidence to crack down on all forms of dissent,
including the NLD.

"After Burma became a member of ASEAN, the authorities have become much more
oppressive," Aung San Suu Kyi told AFP in May.

"It gave them confidence because once they got what they wanted, which was
full membership of ASEAN, there was no need for them to be good boys
anymore."

An ASEAN ministerial labour meeting in the Myanmar's capital Yangon in May
refused to condemn child labour and did not officially discuss forced
labour.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.