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Rights groups respond to Geneva comments

Irrawaddy - January 28, 2011

Saw Yan Naing – While a Burmese delegation in Geneva maintains that there are no human rights abuses in Burma, civilians in conflict zones, most notably in Karen State, are fleeing torture, rape, murder and other violations committed by Burmese government forces, say rights activists and witnesses.

Poe Shan, the director of Thailand-based Karen Human Rights Group, said, "The regime just says these things to defend their image. However, human rights violations remain a big problem in Burma.

"International rights groups should come and closely monitor the human rights abuses in Burma. They should continue to raise the topic [at forums]," he said.

Some 13 porters who were forced to work for the Burmese army recently escaped to an area controlled by the rebel Karen National Liberation Army.

Those interviewed said they witnessed their fellow porters brutally killed – execution-style – by regime troops when they tired or requested a rest.

Aung Kyaw Moe, one of the escaped porters, said that the troops killed his fellow porters in front of them to show the rest of the porters what they could expect if they weakened on the job.

"They [the regime troops] stabbed a porter, Sa Paw, twice in his chest with a knife on Jan 15. They said it was an example for all of us," he said.

The regime troops also cut the necks of another two porters, Chit Ko Ko, 18, and Aung Thu Win, 17, said Joseph, another witness.

According to the KHRG, the majority of human rights abuses in armed conflict zones such as Karen State are carried out by Burmese government forces.

Civilians are targeted by government forces who accuse the villagers of supporting the Karen rebels, according to several rights groups. An endemic policy of rape and shoot-on-sight is also enacted against the ethnic civilian population.

 There are currently 150,000 Burmese refugees, mostly ethnic Karen, at camps along the Thai-Burmese border. Thousands more are displaced in the jungle hiding from Burmese army patrols.

According to a recent report issued by the US-based Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Center for Public Health and Human Rights at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, nearly 92 percent of ethnic Chin people in the remote northwestern corner of Burma suffer from forced labor, rape or other serious abuses at the hands of Burmese soldiers. A researcher for the report said that the statement made by the Burmese delegation in Geneva is inconsistent.

"Almost the entire population in Chin State has experienced human rights abuses," he said, adding that the abuses continue and are widespread even in the wake of the Burmese election.

Jackie Pollock, the director of the Chiang Mai-based Migrant Assistance Program Foundation, said that many Burmese migrant workers come to Thailand to seek jobs due to the social and economic problems in their homeland.

Pollock said there are two million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, many of whom have no legal travel documents.

Recently, hundreds of ethnic Rohingyas from Burma were also arrested in Thailand for illegal entry.

At the UN Human Rights Council forum in Geneva, the Burmese delegation was pressured by the international community to speed up genuine democratic reform in Burma. Western countries including Britain, France and the US called on the military regime to free the more than 2,000 political prisoners, end impunity for abuses, and halt forced labor, arbitrary arrests and the torture of critics.

At the summit, Burma's delegation, headed by Dr. Tun Shin, the country's Deputy Attorney General, said that Burma enjoys a free press, has committed no human rights violations, and has cooperated with UN Human Rights Special Envoy to Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana.

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