Asia

Report reveals Burma abuses
CHILD soldiers and survivors of gang-rape in Burma have told their story of suffering in a report commissioned by Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
A 14-year-old boy, identified as Kyow, who fled his frontline army unit, told a CSW fact-finding team to the Thai-Burmese border in late November 2002, that he was only 11 when abducted by uniformed soldiers while waiting at a bus stop. A Buddhist, he begged the world to tell the Burmese regime not to force children to fight. He said them were many children of a similar age in the military camp, with estiinates that 20 per cent of the total number of Burmese Army soldiers are under 18.
The report revealed also that women were gang-raped by troops from the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), Burma's ruling military junta. The 22-year-old Nan, from the Southern Shan State, told CSW that she was gang-raped by SPDC troops on more than five occasions in the past two years.
Priest seized by Chinese
A PRIEST operating underground was arrested by the Chinese authorities at Christmas when he was on his way to celebrate Midnight Mass. it has emerged.
According to Fr Dong Yingmu, 37. a priest serving the diocese of Baoding, Hebei, was first kept in Qingyuan county detention house for about a month, and was subsequently sent to a prison in Quingyang, but police deny the priest's detention, The Kung Foundation also reported that two bishops and eight other priests, belonging to the underground Diocese of Baoding, are either missing or in various prisons and labour camps.
Bishop Zhimin, 70, was arrested in October 1997. His whereabouts are unknown. Auxiliary Bishop Shuxin, 53. was also arrested in October 1997,