Burma are 'hunted like animals'

CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE

For immediate release

July 18 2002

CSW CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION AS ETHNIC MINORITIES IN BURMA ARE 'HUNTED LIKE ANIMALS'

The Karen people of Burma are 'hunted, shelled and driven like animals' according to a report from CSW's latest fact-finding visit.

The ethnic minorities in Burma are suffering the worst year of persecution since 1997, despite the release of Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi over two months ago.

While the report welcomes positive developments, it also observes that in areas along the Eastern border, the persecution has intensified.

In a visit earlier this month to Karen and Karenni areas on the Thai-Burmese border, CSW heard reports of continuing attacks on villages by the Burmese military. From April until June this year, according to the Free Burma Rangers (FBR) in their report A Brutal Reign of Terror, 28 Karen villages were attacked and looted and the people were forced to relocate. At least six villages were burned, five churches destroyed, three pastors captured and tortured for five days, and 15 villagers murdered, including children aged just two years old. Over 5,000 people have been displaced and the "feeling of fear and hopelessness was palpable", according to the FBR report.

The report quotes a Burma Army Column Commander, Khin Mau Kyi, who led many of the attacks on villages, speaking as he urinated on the head of a Buddhist monk: "I don't respect any religion. My religion is the trigger of my gun."

CSW UK Board Member Benedict Rogers, who returned from the Thai-Burmese border last week, is calling on the international community to intervene in Burma to restore peace, democracy and justice: "The international community should insist that Burma's illegal ruling military junta make meaningful progress towards the transfer of power to the democratically elected government.

"The international community should be prepared to take whatever action is necessary to ensure that the junta complies with these demands and ceases its brutal suppression of the citizens of Burma. The human rights violations which occur daily in Burma under the junta are as horrific as those in Afghanistan under the Taliban. If the world could act in Afghanistan, then it can act in Burma."

CSW is also calling for greater pressure on China, to stop arming the Burmese junta and to use its close relationship with Burma to influence the regime to stop its persecution of the minorities.

Karen National Union (KNU) General Secretary Mahn Sha told CSW that he had hoped the release of Aung San Suu Kyi would bring about three developments: the release of all political prisoners, an end to the reign of terror against the minorities, and the start of meaningful dialogue on political reform. So far, the junta has failed on all counts.

Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) commander Nerdah Mya said: "The Burmese always say that the ethnic minority problem is an internal matter. But how can genocide, the killing of innocent civilians, continuing human rights abuses, rape, looting and destruction be an 'internal matter'? It is an international matter." Nerdah Mya said sanctions were helpful, but were not enough to force the regime to change. "We need to find a quicker way. The more time it takes, the more lives are lost."

James Mawdsley, an International Representative for CSW and former prisoner in Burma after being arrested for pro-democracy demonstrations, said: "Daw Suu Kyi's release is having a wonderful effect on millions of people in central Burma, but so long as the junta believes the international community is not monitoring the border areas, then the vicious and terrifying assaults on communities there will continue."

For more information, a full copy of the report or pictures, contact Richard Chilvers at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 020 8949 0587 or 020 8942 8810 or email or go to http://www.csw.org.uk