WOMEN

Like all their fellow citizens, Burma's women face the day-to-day struggles of living under a military dictatorship. But the country's women also face special problems and are often the target of particular abuse. Rape by soldiers is common, and the military has been implicated in the trafficking of Burmese women into prostitution in neighboring Thailand.

According to the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) 2000 "Human Development Report," Burma's ruling military junta, the State Peace and Development Council (until November 1997 known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC), spends over 200 percent more on its army than on health and education services combined. Other analysts estimate that the disparity is actually far greater. The main victims of low spending for health and education are Burma's women and children.

Of 174 countries rated in the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Index for 2000, Burma ranked 125th, barely ahead of the impoverished African states of Equatorial Guinea and Lesotho (Burma also ranks low in the UNDP's Gender-related Development Index (GDI)). Sixty percent of Burmese lack basic sanitation and forty percent have no access to safe water. The few health services available are often rudimentary and have deteriorated seriously over the last decade. In its ''World Health Report 2000,'' the World health organization (WHO) ranked Burma next to last -190th of 191 countries surveyed - in terms of overall health system performance. Even new foreign investment can create difficulties: mining ventures operate with scant regard to environmental impact, and conditions are poor in many foreign-financed garment factories employing mostly women and children. Women are also special targets for direct abuse. Widespread rape by soldiers is reported from heavily militarized zones along Burma's borders, where the Burmese military has pursued a relentless campaign against minority ethnic groups. Little is done to stop such assaults, and soldiers are not prosecuted for them. Army officers guarding forced labor projects reportedly demand sexual favors in return for lighter duties or release from conscription.

The military is also at least indirectly involved in the procurement and trafficking of women into prostitution in Thailand and other neighboring countries. As many as 40,000 Burmese women, most of them from minority ethnic groups, are believed to be employed in Thai brothels. Some are abducted, while others are lured with false promises of legitimate employment that is so scarce in their impoverished home areas. Many contract AIDS or other serious diseases. It is certain that the large-scale trafficking of Burmese women, some of whom have been sold into prostitution for as little as $35-40, could not continue without the consent and cooperation of Burmese security forces and their Thai counterparts along Burma's frontiers. Thousands of Muslim Rohingya women from southwestern Burma who fled military persecution to refugee camps in Bangladesh have reportedly been trafficked into prostitution in Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the influence of other women has caused unease among the Burmese generals. Daw San San Nwe is one of at least 1,700 political prisoners held by the junta. A well-known Burmese writer, she received a ten-year sentence in 1995 for what the junta said was "spreading information injurious to the state." And in April, 1988, prominent NLD member Daw San San was sentenced to 25 years for participating in a radio interview critical of the junta. A leading Burmese writer and medical doctor, Ma Thida, was released from prison in February 1999 after serving six years of a 20-year sentence under extremely harsh conditions. She had been convicted of "endangering public tranquillity" for the "crime" of distributing information on human rights abuses in Burma. The regime has now banned all Ma Thida's writings.

Especially among the dictatorship's self-selected ranks, women are not represented. The UNDP's 2000 figures show that Burma is among the small handful of countries, including Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen, where women hold no significant government posts.

The world's best-known Burmese, of course, is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's democracy leader, who was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize while in detention. Daw Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's independence leader Aung San, was released from six years of formal house arrest in July 1995, but today is again under de facto detention in her home. Her movements and communication with Burma's peoples and the outside world are severely restricted. Daw Suu Kyi is one of the only voices in Burma that dares publicly challenge the military dictatorship. Her support for nonviolent change in Burma has made her an international hero and representative of the desire of all of Burma's peoples, women and men alike, for a government that would respect their rights and strive to meet their needs.