Hundreds of government opponents remained imprisoned, including dozens of prisoners of conscience. Some were detained without trial, but most had been sentenced after unfair trials. At least 17 people were arrested for political reasons, including five prisoners of conscience. Prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners were held in conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Persistent human rights violations continued to be reported from many parts of the country, with members of ethnic minorities particularly targeted. The violations included: arbitrary seizure of civilians to serve as military porters and labourers; demolition of homes; ill-treatment; and possible extrajudicial executions. Five people were sentenced to death.

The ruling military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), chaired by General Than Shwe, continued to refuse to convene the People's Assembly elected in 1990. It also continued to suppress political opposition as well as freedom of expression and association.

The National Convention, initially convened to draw up a new constitution in early 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994), reconvened in January and agreed basic principles for administering the state. The principles establish a leading role for the military in politics. They also stipulate that the country's president and vice-presidents must not be married to a foreigner, must not receive support from abroad and must have lived in the country for at least 20 years. It was widely believed that these conditions were designed to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), from the office of president. The National Convention reconvened in September to discuss self-administered areas for ethnic minorities, the legislature, the executive branch and the judiciary.

Four armed opposition groups representing different ethnic minorities – the Karenni National People's Liberation Front, the Kachin Independence Organization, the Kayan New Land Party and the Shan State Nationalities Liberation Organization – signed cease-fire agreements with the SLORC during the year. In May the Burmese armed forces launched an offensive in the Shan State against the Muang Tai army led by Khun Sa. Cease-fire negotiations between the New Mon State Party (NMSP), representing the Mon ethnic minority, and the SLORC were stalled at the end of the year. Human rights violations against members of ethnic minorities continued throughout the year, both in areas where cease-fires were holding and in the context of counter-insurgency operations.

In February the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar submitted an extensive report to the UN Commission on Human Rights. In March the Commission adopted without a vote a resolution which extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur for another year, and called on the Myanmar Government to release Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained political leaders and prisoners immediately and unconditionally. In December the UN General Assembly adopted without a vote a resolution expressing grave concern at the continued human rights violations in Myanmar and requested the Secretary-General to continue his discussions with the SLORC.

Hundreds of political prisoners, including dozens of prisoners of conscience, remained in detention; most had been convicted under laws which criminalized peaceful political activity and allowed unfair trials. Dozens of political prisoners sentenced to long prison terms after unfair trials before military tribunals (which were abolished in 1992) remained in jail.

Prisoner of conscience and co-founder of the NLD, Aung San Suu Kyi, remained under house arrest throughout the year. In February she was allowed to meet a US Congressman, her first visit from someone outside her family for almost five years. Aung San Suu Kyi told him that she had been informed her detention would continue until 1995. Later in the year she was allowed visits from an exiled Burmese Buddhist monk and was taken to meet leading members of the SLORC.

At least 17 people were arrested for political reasons, including five prisoners of conscience. In July Khin Zaw Win, a dentist and graduate student, was arrested at Yangon airport as he tried to board a plane for Singapore, where he was studying. He is a well-known NLD activist and was carrying documents relating to the political opposition movement in Myanmar when arrested. Six other NLD activists were arrested in August. One was later released but the others remained held. Four of them – Daw San San Nwe, a well-known writer and former NLD member, her daughter Ma Myat Mo Mo Tun, and NLD mps-elect Khin Maung Swe and Sein Hla Oo – were tried with Khin Zaw Win before a civilian tribunal in Insein prison, Yangon, in October. Charges included spreading false information and contacting illegal organizations. All five were sentenced to between seven and 15 years' imprisonment.

More than 70 political prisoners were released during the year. The SLORC did not provide further details, but it was learned that among those freed were two prisoners of conscience: Zargana, a popular satirist imprisoned in 1990, was released in March; and Nai Tun Thein, an mp-elect for the Mon National Democratic Front, was released in August.

Political prisoners were held in poor conditions, sometimes amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. A US Congressman visited four prisoners held in Insein prison, Yangon, in February. Their poor health, as described by the Congressman, reflects the lack of adequate medical treatment available to prisoners. Prisoner of conscience Dr Ma Thida, who was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment in 1993 (see Amnesty International Report 1994), said she had a gastric ulcer and endometriosis. Min Ko Naing, former chairperson of the All Burma Federation of Students imprisoned since 1989, had a nervous tremor and appeared to have suffered emotionally from torture and ill-treatment inflicted during the early stages of his detention. Win Tin, a senior member of the NLD arrested in 1989, appeared to have been denied adequate medical care. Win Htein, a prominent NLD member arrested in 1989, was suffering from hypertension and headaches. All four prisoners were being held in solitary confinement in cells with little light. Family visits were restricted to 15 minutes fortnightly.

Human rights violations against members of ethnic minority groups, particularly the Mon, Karen and Shan, continued throughout the year. Soldiers routinely entered villages in ethnic minority areas, burned houses, stole livestock and crops and evicted villagers from their homes. Villagers who refused to move were beaten. Many were seized in their fields or homes, accused of supporting armed insurgents, and tortured. Some were reported to have been extrajudicially executed.

In March, for example, soldiers of the 99th Division approached a Karen village. Most of the villagers fled, but three men who carried on working were taken away and accused of being insurgents with the Karen National Union (KNU). Three young girls, who were also taken but later escaped, reported that the soldiers tortured the three men, beating them and submerging their heads in water. The girls said the soldiers then stabbed the men to death, and slit the throat of the youngest, a 14-year-old boy. The families of the victims found the bodies buried near the village.

Also in March a porter was killed by soldiers from the 339th regiment. His brother described how seven soldiers seized them both for porter duty while they worked in their fields. The soldiers accused the two men of being KNU members. The brother could not respond as he did not understand Burmese, so the soldiers slit his throat and shot him.

Thousands of members of ethnic minorities were arbitrarily seized by the military and forced to serve as porters carrying army supplies, or as unpaid labourers working on construction projects. Porters were held in army custody for periods ranging from a few days to a few months, and some were forced to work for the army for much of the year. They usually received little or no food, and frequently suffered from malnutrition and malaria. Most were not given medical attention and were forced to continue to work, sometimes until they collapsed and were left behind or killed by troops. Old people, pregnant women and children were among those conscripted. One man from Hlaingbwe township, Kayin State, for instance, was forced to be a porter 10 times in a year. When he lagged behind he was beaten on the back with a stick. During a military offensive against the Muang Tai army in May, hundreds of Shan and other civilians were seized by the military to serve as porters.

Thousands of people were forced to work on large construction projects, particularly a railway line between the towns of Ye and Dawei. Villagers were forced to leave their homes and live by the railway until they had completed a quota set by the army. Hundreds of refugees from the Mon State who had been forced to work on the railway fled to Thailand. The Thai authorities forced them to move to Halockhanie camp, which straddles the border with Myanmar (see Thailand entry). On 21 July soldiers from the 62nd Infantry Battalion of the Burmese army attacked the camp, burned down 60 houses and took 16 men to act as porters. At the end of the year, one was still missing; he was believed to have been sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

Five people were sentenced to death in January. One man was convicted of murder and possession of heroin. Four men were sentenced to death for murder two days after the crime was committed: their rapid trial may have been unfair. There were no reports of any executions.

The return of Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, under a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (see Amnesty International Report 1994), resumed during the year, and more than 115,000 had returned by the end of the year.

Amnesty International received no new information about abuses committed by armed opposition groups during the year. The organization remained concerned about the health and whereabouts of two prisoners held by a faction of the All Burma Students Democratic Front, an armed opposition group (see Amnesty International Report 1994).

In January Amnesty International published a report, Myanmar: Human rights developments July to December 1993. It called on the government to provide adequate medical care for prisoners, and to cease holding political prisoners in solitary confinement. On the fifth anniversary of the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of her and all prisoners of conscience. The organization later appealed for the release of the NLD activists arrested in July and August. In November Amnesty International published a major report, Myanmar: Human rights still denied, and called on the government to comply with international human rights standards.

In an oral statement to the UN Commission on Human Rights in March, Amnesty International included reference to its concerns in Myanmar.

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