Amnesty highlights abuse in Asia

Tibetans in India urge China to release the Panchen Lama who they say has been detained for 5 years as a young boy

By CNN's Rose Tang

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Amnesty International has celebrated its 40th birthday by highlighting human rights abuses in 149 countries, including a rise in intolerance of religious and ethnic minorities in Asia.

The London-based human rights group says the intolerance was manifest in ongoing civil wars, coups, religious repression, ethnic unrest and displacement, torture, and the harsh treatment of asylum-seekers.

In its annual report, Amnesty condemned endemic use of torture in China, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar and noted that people are tortured or ill treated by police and security forces in 20 countries in the region.

Twelve Asian countries carry out confirmed or extra-judicial executions, while more than a dozen countries hold prisoners of conscience and arrest or detain people without charge of trial, it said .

Singapore had the world's highest number of executions per capita in 2000, while China carried out 1,000 executions in 2000 according to limited records available to the group, it reported.

Amnesty also lashes out on armed opposition groups in eight Asian nations for deliberate and arbitrary killings, torture and kidnapping of civilians.

Focus on Falun Gong

The organization criticized China for continuing to crack down on religious groups and ethnic minorities.

At least 93 followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have died in custody and hundreds of Buddhist monks and nuns remain in jail in Tibet by the end of 2000, according to Amnesty.

And ethnic Muslim Uighurs, labeled as "separatists" or "terrorists" were executed after secret trials in which they were tortured to confess. Thousands remain in prison, the group said.

In Myanmar's crackdown on insurgency, the military continues to kill or force ethnic minority civilians into hard labor.

Amnesty praises the Myanmar government for publicly pledging to improve its international reputation on humanitarian issues after the human rights group issued a report on extensive use of torture in the country.

But the group points out that Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratic leaders remain under house arrest.

The group points out that Indonesia's human rights situation worsened and the reform "almost ground to a halt" during the first year of democratically elected government in 2000.

Repression of pro-independence movement in Aceh and Papua led to a rise in "disappearance", torture and killings. And the government failed to prevent deaths in clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Moluccas, it said.

Millions displaced

Amnesty also stresses that millions of people in the region have been displaced since 2000 in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikstan, Solomon Islands, Fiji and West Timor as a result of ethnic clashes, drought, civil wars and coups.

Women in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are particularly vulnerable to killing, torture, rape in the home and community and in custody.

The human rights group reiterates that Afghanistan's ruling Taleban militia continues to enforce a ban on women's freedom of movement. Young women are reportedly abducted by guards and forced to be "wives" for Taleban commanders.

Amnesty also condemns governments in richer countries such as Japan and Australia continue to deny basic rights to asylum-seekers by detaining them upon arrival.

Since 1961, Amnesty International members have campaigned to defend prisoners of conscience and other victims of human rights violations including torture, "disappearances", political killings and executions.

Amnesty activists have worked on more than 45,000 cases, and have responded to more than 16,600 urgent appeals on behalf of men, women and children in immediate danger.