Twenty years after the brief flowering of people power in Myanmar,
however, little has improved for the millions of people still suffering
under repressive rule.
Twenty years after the start of pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar that were violently repressed, the United Nations (UN) should take stronger measures to obtain the release of U Win Tin and other prisoners of conscience detained since that day, Amnesty International said today.
For over two years the Myanmar army has been waging a military offensive against ethnic Karen civilians in the eastern parts of the country.
Myanmar’s government is stepping up efforts to force survivors of Cyclone Nargis out of emergency shelters and is keeping aid from reaching them, according to new research published by Amnesty International today. The government’s actions place tens of thousands of already vulnerable survivors at increased risk of death, disease and hunger.
Myanmar’s government is keeping aid from reaching survivors of Cyclone
Nargis and stepping up efforts to force them out of emergency shelters.
In an open letter, Amnesty International's Secretary General has called on ASEAN leaders to take urgent action to prevent further human rights violations in Myanmar.
As hold-ups continue in the supply of foreign aid to Myanmar, Asian
leaders have been urged to pressure the country's military rulers into
taking swift action to address a growing humanitarian catastrophe.
Leaders of Amnesty International in Asia Pacific, meeting
in Hong Kong, called on their governments to use every means possible
to pressure the Myanmar authorities to focus on disaster relief and
facilitate international assistance to protect the rights to life, food
and health of its citizens.
In the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the government
of Myanmar is deliberately impeding life-saving
assistance.
Despite the devastating consequences of Cyclone Nargis, which killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly a million more, Myanmar’s government has announced that it will proceed with its plans for holding a national referendum regarding a new constitution on May 10.
