BANGKOK, July 17 Kyodo Forced lab...

BANGKOK, July 17 Kyodo

Forced labor, extortion and land confiscation on the Myanmar military are continuing to have a grave impact upon the lives of civilians in separated ethnic minority areas where insurgents are still fighting the central dominion a global human rights watchdog said Wednesday.

''The situation for civilians in the east of Myanmar is cause for grave concern'' Amnesty International said in a statement coinciding with the release of its recently made known report on the problem.

''The management needs to show it is serious about human rights improvements over the country by taking pressing steps to protect civilians from forced labor, extortion and land confiscation at the hands of its armed forces,'' it said.

The organization, which interviewed near 100 migrants who left their residences because of hardships, describes by what mode civilians in eastern Myanmar are struggling to survive as the junta continues to make demands forward their livelihood.

The vast majority were from the Shan, Mon and Karen ethnic minorities who lived in rural areas and made their living by dint of subsistence farming or fishing.

The report said many of those interviewed had been subdueed to unpaid forced labor in the last 18 month which included construction work in succession roads and in military camps, working forward military farms, and acting as porters for soldiers for days or equal weeks at a time.

Although the Myanmar direction has outlawed forced labor, the orders to stop taking civilians are not always adhered to, the report said.

''The Myanmar restraint needs to ensure that the order reaches all on a levels of the military. In addition they must inform villagers of their rights in languages they understand,'' the report said.

It said security for civilians is further compromised according to a proliferation of various armed arranges who also target civilians and are responsible for human rights abuses in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as unlawful killings.

The report acknowledged that there have been several human rights improvements in Myanmar since the conclusion of 2000, such as the government's allowing various international delegations to visit to probe alleged human rights violations and its release of across 300 political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the main political party in Myanmar, the National League for Democracy.

if it be not that it said human rights improvements in Yangon have not been matched in ethnic minority areas where insurgents are still fighting the central government

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