Continuing military attacks on civilians, accompanied by killings, widespread rape, forced labour and the associated displacement of thousands suggests that Burma's military regime's roadmap to democracy is a sham.

A delegation that included (Caroline) Baroness Cox, President of CSW UK, John Bercow MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, surgeon Anthony Peel FRCS, and Benedict Rogers, CSW human rights advocate, returned today from visiting ethnic national groups - including Karen, Karenni and Shan people - on both sides of the Thai-Burmese border, where they obtained evidence of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)'s remorseless policy of ethnic cleansing. Some of the delegation has also recently visited the Chin and Kachin people of north-western Burma where they found similar policies of attempted cultural genocide of these ethnic national groups by the SPDC.

Atrocities reported include the rape of a Shan woman by SPDC soldiers on April 17, and military attacks by SPDC soldiers on Karenni villages from December 25 to the present day. These attacks have forced over 3,000 more civilians to flee for their lives, and to live in conditions of acute deprivation as Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs). Many are hiding in the jungle with no health care, education or regular food supplied. They are in constant fear of being found and killed by SPDC soldiers. Cold at night, with no warm clothing or blankets, they dare not light fires for fear of discovery and certain death. Others who have been forcibly driven from villages to relocation camps are subject to forced labour from dawn until nightfall, carrying loads of 30 kilograms or more. Many are used as human minesweepers. Others who have escaped are victims of landmine accidents, such as one 17-year old boy who lost a leg in a mine explosion and had to be carried for 21 hours to safety and treatment.

These few examples demonstrate the SPDC's cynicism, continuing its genocidal policies against ethnic nationals while promoting its "roadmap to democracy". The forthcoming National Convention can also be seen as a democratic farce - to be held in a military camp, the participants are limited to those hand-picked by the regime, which is excluding many ethnic minority representatives.

Caroline Cox said: "This evidence of continuing atrocities amounts to a policy of protracted cultural and physical genocide of death by a thousand cuts. Therefore, the SPDC's much-vaunted roadmap to democracy must be seen as a hypocritical propaganda exercise which should be treated by the international community with the contempt it deserves."

John Bercow MP, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, observed that: "For far too long the wanton savagery of the military regime in Burma has received all too little public attention. The testimonies we received suggest that these atrocities against innocent citizens continue on a daily basis. In light of this, the notion that the regime is serious about planning for a democratic future is beyond belief. It seems blindingly obvious that the junta is hell-bent on keeping power at all costs and bludgeoning its opponents into submission. The British Government, the European Union and the United Nations owe it to the people of Burma to intensify pressure, including sanctions, until the ruling militia comes to apply internationally accepted standards of behaviour."

Source: Shan-EU Group