NEW YORK — In a resolution passed by the UN Commission on Human Rights, the government of Myanmar (formerly Burma) received strong censure for its “continuing pattern of gross and systematic violations of human rights, including extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, particularly in areas of ethnic tension, and enforced disappearances, torture, harsh prison conditions, abuse of women and children by government agents, arbitrary seizures of land and property, and the imposition of oppressive measures directed in particular at ethnic and religious minorities, including systematic programs of forced relocation, destruction of crops and fields, the continued widespread use of forced labor, including for work on infrastructure projects, production of food for the military and as porters for the army.”
The resolution went on to deplore the regime’s “continued violations of the human rights of, and widespread discriminatory practices against, people belonging to minorities, including extrajudicial executions, rape, torture, ill-treatment and the systematic programs of forced relocation directed against ethnic minorities, notably in Karen, Karenni, Rakhine and Shanstates.”
Significant numbers within the persecuted minority groups have converted to Christianity. Around 30 percent of the Karen are Christians and more than 30,000 of them have died since 1993 alone as a result of Burmese military operations. More than 300,000 Karen have been internally displaced.
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