Myanmar accuses Red Cross of helping rebels

By Aung Hla Tun

April 4, 2008 (Reuters)-YANGON, Myanmar's military rulers hit back on Wednesday at rare public criticism from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), accusing the humanitarian agency of secret ties to guerrillas.

"The authorities found out evidences that personnel of the five regional offices of the ICRC had clandestine relations with insurgent groups," said Than Than Nwe, president of the Myanmar Women's Affairs Federation.

Than Than Nwe, wife of Prime Minister Soe Win, made her comments at an official Women's Day ceremony on Tuesday and reported in the former Burma's state-controlled Burmese and English-language newspapers the following day.

The Geneva-based ICRC issued a rare public censure of Myanmar last week, accusing the junta of serious abuses against civilians and prisoners, including forcing them to serve as army porters walking ahead of soldiers through minefields.

The ICRC says it has also been unable to visit any of Myanmar's estimated 1,100 political prisoners since late 2005 because the authorities have refused to allow ICRC staff to conduct meetings in private.

It has also closed three humanitarian offices near ethnic conflict areas this year, citing government restrictions.

Than Than Nwe said the ICRC chose to visit only "prisoners who were in the list given by anti-government groups at home and abroad" and invariably stirred up trouble.

"Separate meetings with such prisoners were followed by unrest and protests at the jails in consequence," the New Light of Myanmar, the junta's main English-language mouthpiece, quoted her as saying.

"Such activities harmed State's sovereignty, stability, peace and prevalence of law and order, so the authorities had to lay down new procedures," she said.

Since gaining independence from Britain in 1948, the Southeast Asian nation has been riven by dozens of guerrilla conflicts with ethnic minorities seeking either autonomy or independence.

Many of these intensified after the army seized power in 1962 and established military rule that has endured to this day.

The junta signed ceasefires with many rebel groups during the 1990s, although the three largest militias -- the Karen National Liberation Army, the Karenni National Progressive Party and the Shan State Army -- refuse to lay down their weapons.

State media reported last month that "terrorist insurgents" had killed 27 people in two attacks on buses in Karen and Karenni areas.

Official newspapers frequently rail against "internal and external terrorists" or "destructive elements", junta shorthand for the opposition National League for Democracy and exiled political groups.