Harsh restrictions imposed on Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya minority continued during the final year of that country’s rule by a nominally civilian but military-backed party, while government troops acted with impunity in abusing noncombatants in conflict zones, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday in an annual report on human rights practices around the world.
The 2015 Human Rights Report also noted that authorities in Vietnam used “politically motivated arrests and convictions” of bloggers and rights activists last year to suppress freedom of speech online and the rights of assembly, association, and movement.
In Cambodia, meanwhile, government-linked mobs physically assaulted members of political opposition parties, the report said, adding that Cambodia’s ruling party frequently used “a politicized and ineffective judiciary” to sentence activists and others critical of the government to lengthy prison terms.
Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority group experienced “severe legal, economic, and social discrimination” during the 2015 reporting period, with the government limiting their access to higher education, health care, and other basic services, the State Department said in its report.
“The government required them to receive prior approval for travel outside their village . . . and prohibited them from working as civil servants, including as doctors, nurses, or teachers,” the report said. (Courtesy of rfa.org)
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