U.N. condemns "widespread human rights violations" in North Korea and Burma

[pba]

A special committee of the U.N. General Assembly

condemned North Korea and Burma on Thursday for

what it said were widespread human rights violations in the

two Asian countries. The 192-nation General Assembly's

Third Committee, which focuses on human rights issues,

approved a resolution on North Korea 97-19 with 65

abstentions. A similar resolution on Burma (Myanmar)

passed 92-26 with 65 abstentions. The North Korea

resolution voiced "very serious concern" at what it said

were persistent reports of "systematic, widespread and

grave violations of civil, political, economic, social and

cultural rights."

Among Pyongyang's violations, the resolution said, are

torture, inhuman conditions of detention, public

executions, collective punishment and "the existence of a

large number of prison camps and the extensive use of

forced labor." North Korea's deputy U.N. ambassador, Pak

Tok Hun, dismissed the resolution as a political attack by

its enemies. "The draft resolution is nothing more than a

document of political conspiracy of the hostile forces to

... deny and obliterate the state and social system of

the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," he told the

committee. Among the sponsors of the North Korea

resolution were the European Union, the United States,

Japan and South Korea.

Envoys from developing nations that rights groups have

also accused of having poor human rights records,

including China, Russia, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Egypt,

Zimbabwe, told the committee that they generally reject

such resolutions because they oppose singling out specific

countries. Burma's U.N. envoy Than Swe rejected the

resolution on his country, which said the assembly

"strongly condemns the ongoing systematic violations of

human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of

Myanmar." It also voiced "grave concern" at the recent

trial and sentencing to further house arrest of Burma's

opposition leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu

Kyi, and urged the military junta to release her and all

other political prisoners. Than Swe said the resolution

is "glaringly deficient" and little more than "another

means to maintain pressure on Myanmar (Burma) in

tandem with sanctions."

When dictators talk about human rights :

[agencies]

Kenji Nagai was a Japanese photojournalist shot dead in

Burma during the 2007 Burmese anti-dictature protests by

Burmese Buddhist monks. As we can see on this picture,

Kenji Nagai continued to take photos as he lay shot on the

ground, later dying from gunshot injuries to the chest.

He was the only foreign national killed in the protests.