AP-Myanmar Lies on Religious Restri

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Subject: AP-Myanmar Lies on Religious Restriction

Saturday September 11 8:58 AM ET

Myanmar Denies Religious Restriction
By GRANT PECK Associated Press Writer

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - The government of Myanmar on Saturday dismissed as
unfounded charges by the U.S. State Department that it uses force to
propagate Buddhism, the dominant religion, and denies human rights and
political freedom to some Buddhist monks.

The charges were made Tuesday in the State Department's Annual Report on
International Religious Freedom, published for the first time this year to
meet the mandate of a new law.

The government ``systematically restricted efforts by Buddhist clergy to
promote human rights and political freedom, and, according to multiple
detailed credible reports, government authorities in some ethnic minority
areas coercively promoted Buddhism over other religions,'' said the report's
section on Myanmar, also called Burma.

A statement by the Myanmar government spokesman said it ``is regretful that
the U.S. State Department is not aware that Buddhism does not force-promote
its faith.''

``It is against the fundamental belief of Buddhism to do such things and in
Myanmar, Buddhism is practiced devotedly,'' said the statement, faxed to The
Associated Press in Bangkok, Thailand.

It also said that under Buddhist law, monks are supposed to refrain from
political and commercial activities.

The State Department took particular note of allegations of abuses against
the Christian Chin ethnic minority.

``Government security forces continued efforts to induce members of the Chin
ethnic minority to convert to Buddhism and prevent Christian Chin from
proselytizing by highly coercive means, including religiously selective
exemptions from forced labor, and by arresting, detaining, interrogating,
and physically abusing Christian clergy,'' it said.

It also claimed that members of the Muslim Rohingya minority in Arakan
State, on the country's western coast, ``continued to experience severe
legal, economic, and social discrimination.''

The Myanmar government statement charged that ``without substantial
evidence, it is improper to accuse other nations or governments just based
on hearsay. There is an American idiom which is quite appropriate for this
case: `People living in glass houses should not throw stones,''' it said.