These severe violations continue today, including arbitrary executions and forced labor of villagers as military porters in combat zones. Children have been particularly hard hit, both as direct physical victims of military abuse and as members of affected families. In 2001, conditions in Shan State and Karen State deteriorated as the junta launched wide-scale military operations. Hundreds of thousands of people in those areas have fled their homes to avoid conscription as porters or worse abuses. Only a few who are near the Thai frontier receive even a little external food or medical assistance.
Gross violations are part of a broader ongoing suppression of other fundamental freedoms.
Today, the most basic of globally recognized civil and political rights are not respected by Burma's generals, despite the fact that Burma is signatory to several of the most important international human rights treaties. There is no freedom of expression. Even art exhibitions must be approved by military authorities. Beyond sports and romance magazines, the few independent publications that survive are subject to severe censorship. The regime's Press Scrutiny Board orders articles even obliquely critical of official actions inked over or torn from offending issues, while state newspapers are filled with crudely virulent attacks on democratic forces.