World Tibet Network News Saturday, January 31, 1998

WASHINGTON, Jan 31 (AFP) - The United States blasted authoritarian regimes across Asia, condemning rulers in Myanmar, Indonesia and Cambodia for human rights abuses, but accepting some improvements in China.

In its annual report on human rights worldwide for 1997 released Friday, the State Department said there was growing tolerance in China, although abuses were widespread and well-documented.

It showed a different tone from last year when Beijing was blasted for crushing dissent. China's repression had not extended into Hong Kong, the former British colony handed back to Beijing in July last year.

Nevertheless the report was strongly critical of China.

"The government continued to commit widespread and well-documented human rights abuses ... (including) torture, and mistreatment of prisoners, forced confessions, and arbitrary arrest and lengthy incommunicado detention."

It also slammed "repressive" policies in Tibet, saying these "risk undermining Tibet's unique cultural, linguistic, and religious heritage.

Overall, the report said, 1997 was another year in which "strong authoritarian governments in many parts of the world kept themselves in power through systematic abuse of the human rights of their citizens. The dismal scenario is all too familiar."

Across the rest of Asia a string of regimes were slammed for rights abuses, repression and corruption.

In Myanmar, formerly Burma, the United States said the ruling military junta had changed its name -- from the State Law and Order Restoration Council to the State Peace and Development Council -- but not its ways.

"Security forces continued to commit extrajudicial killings, beatings and rape. The Government continued its restrictions on basic rights of free speech, the press, assembly, association and privacy," it said.

The opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) was constantly harassed, with restrictions tightened on its leader Aung San Suu Kyi especially.

In Indonesia the 450,000-strong armed forces were being used primarily to uphold an authoritarian regime, it said.

"Despite a surface adherence to democratic reforms, the Indonesian political system remains strongly authoritarian," the report said. "Pervasive corruption remains a problem."

The State Department's harsh words are likely to provide ammunition for critics of international efforts to strengthen Indonesia's troubled economy.

East Timor, the troubled former Portuguese colony, again witnessed torture and killings.

"Credible sources confirmed several deaths in detention in East Timor during the year," it said.

Cambodia, which saw one of its two co-prime ministers ousted in a coup last July, took little action against the myriad rights abuses in the country.

"The human rights situation deteriorated markedly during and after the July fighting," when first prime minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh was ousted, it said.

Forces loyal to victorious Second Prime Minister Hun Sen had then launched a "campaign of fear and political intimidation" seeking out supporters of the prince "some of whom they executed and others they detained," it added.

The United States has taken the strongest line of any member of the international community against Phnom Penh, cutting all non-humanitarian aid to Cambodia and effectively forcing the country's UN seat to remain vacant.

The report criticised Vietnam's civil rights record as "still poor", citing limits on freedom of expression, worship and assembly.

"The government continued to repress basic political and some religious freedoms and to commit numerous abuses," it said.

The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam is holding as many as 200 prisoners jailed for dissenting political or religious views.

In Afghanistan, where civil war still reigns following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban Islamic militia in late 1996, law and order is enforced arbitrarily, the report said.

"Political killings, torture, rape, arbitrary detention, looting, abductions and kidnappings for ransom were committed by armed units, local commanders and rogue individuals," it said.

There was also widespread discrimination against women and girls.

The report also highlighted poor human rights records on the Indian subcontinent in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and in Sri Lanka with extrajudicial killings by security forces in their war against the Tamil Tigers.