‘Brutal’ Myanmar rights record
WASHINGTON – THE United States lashed out at the Myanmar regime’s human rights record on Wednesday, saying the military was ‘brutally’ suppressing its citizens and razing entire villages.
In an annual global report on human rights, the State Department said Myanmar’s ruling junta carried out numerous extrajudicial killings along with rape and torture without punishing anyone responsible.
‘The regime brutally suppressed dissent,’ it said, faulting the junta for ‘denying citizens the right to change their government and committing other severe human rights abuses.’ Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, crushed a 2007 uprising led by Buddhist monks, killing at least 31 people, according to the UN. In May last year, a cyclone left 138,000 people dead or missing.
‘The regime showed contempt for the welfare of its own citizens when it persisted in conducting a fraudulent referendum in the immediate aftermath’ of the cyclone, the State Department said. continue http://www.straitstimes.com:80/Breaking%2BNews/SE%2BAsia/Story/STIStory_343092.html
