It replaces a list of 418 people announced a year ago after the junta brutally crushed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
"This was, unfortunately, only the most recent very public instance of the brutal treatment meted out to civil society in that country and to those seeking to make Burma a better society and a nation based on democratic norms and ideals," Smith told Parliament.
"Australia will continue to press Burma's regime for meaningful political progress toward democracy," he added.
Smith said the detention of 2,000 political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is "a major impediment to political progress."
The junta's initial response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in May was "very disappointing" and the referendum days later that approved Myanmar's new military-backed constitution was "a sham," Smith said.
The cyclone killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing, according to the government _ the worst natural disaster in the nation's modern history.
Australia has long banned defense exports to Myanmar and denies travel visas to members of the regime.
"This was, unfortunately, only the most recent very public instance of the brutal treatment meted out to civil society in that country and to those seeking to make Burma a better society and a nation based on democratic norms and ideals," Smith told Parliament.
"Australia will continue to press Burma's regime for meaningful political progress toward democracy," he added.
Smith said the detention of 2,000 political prisoners, including pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is "a major impediment to political progress."
The junta's initial response to the devastation caused by Cyclone Nargis in May was "very disappointing" and the referendum days later that approved Myanmar's new military-backed constitution was "a sham," Smith said.
The cyclone killed more than 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing, according to the government _ the worst natural disaster in the nation's modern history.
Australia has long banned defense exports to Myanmar and denies travel visas to members of the regime.
66,000 People Displaced By Myanmar Army Abuses - Aid Group
The Thailand Burma Border Consortium, or TBBC, which provides aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees who flee Myanmar, formally known as Burma, said in a new report the junta's actions could constitute crimes against humanity.
"The extent of persecution and suffering in the border areas has been largely unseen and under-reported for decades," Jack Dunford, TBBC's executive director, said.
"Yet the same brutal army that crushed protests on city streets last September marauds with impunity in rural Burma, bringing fear and disrupting the lives of villagers on a day to day basis."
The TBBC report accuses the military of systematically forcing villagers from their homes in Myanmar's eastern Karen and Shan states.
Forced labor, land confiscation, and restricting people's access to farmland and markets also has a devastating economic impact, it added.
The group said its findings appeared to support London-based Amnesty International's report that the violations in eastern Myanmar "meet the legal threshold to constitute crimes against humanity."
Amnesty said in a June report Myanmar was committing crimes against humanity by targeting civilians during its military offensive against ethnic rebel armies who have been battling the junta's rule for decades.
Civilians living in the areas affected have been subjected to abuses including torture, forced labor, killings, arbitrary arrest and the destruction of homes, villages, farmland and food stocks, Amnesty said.
The TBBC estimated there are more than half a million people currently internally displaced within eastern Myanmar.
"Approximately 66,000 people were forced to leave their homes due to the effects of armed conflict and human rights abuses during the past year alone," the group said, referring to the time between July 2007 and June 2008.
There are also about 120,000 refugees living in camps along Thailand's border with Myanmar. Most are refugees from Myanmar's many ethnic minorities, the majority from the Karen group.
"The extent of persecution and suffering in the border areas has been largely unseen and under-reported for decades," Jack Dunford, TBBC's executive director, said.
"Yet the same brutal army that crushed protests on city streets last September marauds with impunity in rural Burma, bringing fear and disrupting the lives of villagers on a day to day basis."
The TBBC report accuses the military of systematically forcing villagers from their homes in Myanmar's eastern Karen and Shan states.
Forced labor, land confiscation, and restricting people's access to farmland and markets also has a devastating economic impact, it added.
The group said its findings appeared to support London-based Amnesty International's report that the violations in eastern Myanmar "meet the legal threshold to constitute crimes against humanity."
Amnesty said in a June report Myanmar was committing crimes against humanity by targeting civilians during its military offensive against ethnic rebel armies who have been battling the junta's rule for decades.
Civilians living in the areas affected have been subjected to abuses including torture, forced labor, killings, arbitrary arrest and the destruction of homes, villages, farmland and food stocks, Amnesty said.
The TBBC estimated there are more than half a million people currently internally displaced within eastern Myanmar.
"Approximately 66,000 people were forced to leave their homes due to the effects of armed conflict and human rights abuses during the past year alone," the group said, referring to the time between July 2007 and June 2008.
There are also about 120,000 refugees living in camps along Thailand's border with Myanmar. Most are refugees from Myanmar's many ethnic minorities, the majority from the Karen group.
No comments:
Post a Comment