Myanmar activists release report

Myanmar activists release report

BANGKOK (AFP): The Myanmar military is responsible for massive
human rights abuses in southern Myanmar in the pursuit of major
economic ventures, a report by dissident students released
yesterday said.

The All Burma Students' Democratic Front allege that tens of
thousands of villagers have been relocated or used as forced
labor on state infrastructure projects in the drive to develop
the region.

"Terror in the South: Militarization, Economics and Human
Rights in Southern Burma" documents how locals have suffered as
roads, railways, gas pipelines and even ecotourism ventures have
been built.

"Human rights abuses against the local population have
increased as a result of the military's heightened presence in
the region to secure large scale infrastructure projects," the
student group said.