The U.N. General Assembly has adopted a resolution denouncing human rights violations in Myanmar, particularly atrocities in a campaign to suppress an insurgency among the Karen ethnic minority.

The resolution, approved Friday night in response to a report from a U.N. special investigator, called on Myanmar's military junta to "end the systematic violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

It demanded the government "take urgent measures to put an end to the military operations targeting civilians in the ethnic areas" and to the recruitment of child soldiers and torture.

The General Assembly adopted a similar resolution a year ago, but the Thailand Burma Border Consortium, an aid agency caring for refugees along the Thai-Myanmar border, estimates that the violence has worsened, forcing 82,000 people from their homes this year alone.

Since 1996, more than 3,000 villages have been destroyed or abandoned in eastern Myanmar, and more than 1 million people have been displaced, according to the agency's most recent report.

Human rights groups, and most recently a number of actors and musicians, have pushed for U.N. Security Council sanctions against the military junta.

The United States, which has imposed its own sanctions on Myanmar, also known as Burma, has drafted a resolution but China and Russia — both veto-wielding Security Council members — are resisting.

China and Russia both voted against the General Assembly's resolution, as did many of Myanmar's neighbors. It in a vote of 82-25, with 45 members abstaining.

The resolution also urged Myanmar's government to work toward incorporating representatives of minorities in the political process.

The junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now under house arrest. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's party won a landslide election victory.

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Associated Press Writer Denis D. Gray in Bangkok contributed to this report.