Santi Dhamma Vihara K

The brief situations in Burma 1. Overthrow of Democratically-Elected Government: A military regime overthrew the democratically-elected government in 1962. In 1990, the military regime permitted elections to take place. The result: the National League for Democracy (NLD) became the democratically elected government of Burma, winning more than 80 percent of the seats in Parliament. The NLD was never permitted to take power and NLD members have since been harassed, jailed, and murdered. NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi has remained under house arrest in Burma since 1990 with only intermittent periods of release. 2. Conflict Between Central Governments and Ethnic Factions: Serious, protracted fighting between the SPDC and various ethnic groups seeking autonomy and freedom from oppression has been consistent and ongoing, even in areas where non-binding ceasefire agreements have been made. 3. Widespread Internal Humanitarian/Human Rights Violations: The SPDC has committed grave, systematic, and widespread human rights abuses against the people in Burma, including violations similar to but even worse than in other cases previously considered by the Security Council. Some violations that are unique to Burma, or particularly pervasive, include the destruction of more than 2,700 villages since 1996, massive forced relocations, rape of ethnic minorities by SPDC soldiers, and widespread forced labor. As many as 70,000 children have been forced to become soldiers by the regime