WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department said Monday that serious human rights violations continued last year in parts of Asia, a region dotted with authoritarian governments and military regimes.
In its annual report on the state of human rights around the world, the department said things got worse in China, improved a little in Pakistan and Vietnam and remained bad in North Korea and Burma.
In China, there were more crackdowns on religion, on political dissent and on "any person or group perceived to threaten the government,'' the State Department.
It said thousands of unregistered religious institutions had been either closed or destroyed by year's end and that hundreds of leaders of the Falun Gong spiritual sect had been imprisoned.
"Thousands of others remained in a detention or were sentenced to re-education-through-labor camps or incarcerated in mental institutions,'' the report said. It also said there was an intensified crackdown in Tibet during the year.
Despite these setbacks, the report said, "many Chinese had more individual choice, greater access to information, and expanded economic opportunity'' as Marxist ideology continued to give way to economic pragmatism.
The performance in communist North Korea "remained poor,'' the report said, charging "numerous serious abuses.''
"The leadership perceives most international norms of human rights, especially individual rights, as illegitimate, alien and subversive,'' the report said, noting the death penalty and confiscation of assets can be used for attempting to defect, slandering state policy and listening to foreign broadcasts.
The North Korean government prohibits freedom of speech, the press, assembly and association, and all forms of cultural and media activities.
The report criticized the highly authoritarian, "sometimes brutal,'' military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"Arbitrary arrest and detention for expression of dissenting political views continued to be a common practice,'' the report said.
The government continued to hold Aung San Suu Kyi in detention as well as 48 members-elect of parliament and more than 1,000 supporters — part of a decade-long effort to prevent the parliament elected in 1990 from taking office.
Other highlights:
—In Vietnam, there was some measurable improvement in a few areas, but there were "numerous abuses'' of basic political and religious freedoms.
The government allowed citizens somewhat greater freedom of expression and assembly to express grievances, including by delegates in the National Assembly, citizens in local forums with delegates, and small groups of protesters outside government offices.
But it continues to restrict freedom of religion and significantly restrict the operation of religious organizations other than those approved by the state.
—Pakistan's government committed "numerous serious abuses; however, there were improvements in some areas, particularly with respect to freedom of the press.''
Citizens continued to be denied the right to choose or change their government peacefully in Pakistan, where Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrew the elected civilian government in a coup, named himself chief executive and suspended the constitution and parliament.
There were fewer extrajudicial killings than in 1999, but police continued to abuse and rape citizens without being prosecuted.
Several major political leaders remained in jail or in self-imposed exile abroad. There was discrimination against women and violence against children.
—India's government generally respected human rights in some areas but "numerous serious problems'' remain.
The report said those included extradjudical killings, excessive force against insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir and several northeastern states, and torture and rape by police and other government agents.
There also was harassment of human rights monitors; extensive violence against women; legal discrimination against women; female bondage and forced prostitution as well as child prostitution and infanticide