Arrests increase in Myanmar, News, Amnesty International Australia

Arrests increase in Myanmar

25 January 2008, 01:23PM

Riot policemen stopped a monk in September 2007 as he tried to enter a
pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar. © Reuters

Four months on from the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in Myanmar, rather than stopping unlawful arrests the government has actually accelerated them. Our latest research reveals 96 people have been arrested since 1 November 2007.

Over the last few months, Myanmarese people have been arrested for things like writing to the BBC about human rights abuses, for being linked to people who spoke to exiled media and for penning a poem criticising a senior general.

UN Special Representative Ibrahim Gambari was told in early November by Prime Minister Thein Sein that arrests had stopped and that no more would take place. Our research contradicts that assurance completely.

The new arrests in Myanmar - formerly known as Burma - in December and January target people who have attempted to send evidence of the crackdown to the international community, clearly showing that the government’s chief priority is to silence its citizens who would hold them to account.

We are also gravely concerned that since 1 November last year, the Myanmar authorities have sentenced to prison at least 15 protesters and their supporters - and that torture and ill-treatment of detainees has been reported.

Such prosecutions are politically motivated, imposed after proceedings that flagrantly abuse people's right to a free and fair trial and contravene international human rights standards.

To date at least 700 people arrested during and since the September protests remain behind bars, while 1,150 political prisoners held prior to the protests have not been released. More than 80 persons remain unaccounted for since the September demonstrations, and are likely the victims of enforced disappearance.

We urge the international community to ensure that the UN Human Rights Council's Resolution of 14 December 2007 - which supported recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Paulo Pinheiro - is respected.

In view of the accelerating rate of arrests and other human rights violations four months on, the international community should press the government of Myanmar to immediately invite Professor Pinheiro back to the country to conduct the full-fledged fact-finding mission he has requested

Amnesty International can confirm the following arrests since early November:

On 4 November, National League for Democracy (NLD) member Zaw Zaw was arrested at a coffee shop in Yangon's Kyeemyindaing Township.
On 5 November, U Khaymarwuntha, 20-year-old monk from Yangon’s Zantila Kamahtan monastery, was arrested for his involvement in the September demonstrations.
On 19 November, Ray Thein (alias Bu Maung), an NLD Secretary in Rakhine State, was re-arrested after being briefly detained in September for holding an anti-junta demonstration.
On 24 November, eight members of the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) were arrested, likely due to KIO's refusal to accede to the government's demand that they publicly renounce the November statement by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
On 28 November, U Tin Hla, member of the Federation of Trade Unions-Burma (FTUB) and the Burma Railway Union, was arrested along with his family for allegedly organising railway workers and encouraging them to join the rallies in September. His wife and two children were released after five days.
On 2 December, Hajee Amir Hakim, a 52-year-old man from Rakhine State, was arrested for writing a letter to the BBC detailing human rights abuses against the Rohingya minority. He was released the following day after his relatives bribed a police officer. Aung Zaw Win, a lay person, was also arrested the same day while inquiring about evicted monks.
On 14 December, Khin Moe Aye, Kyaw Soe, Zaw Min, Min Min Soe, Htun Htun Win and Myo Yan Naung Thein, all former political prisoners and current members of the 88 Generation Students groups, were arrested for being linked to the activists who filmed the September protests and spoke to exiled media.
On 2 January, NLD members Dr Aung Moe Nyo, Htay Myint, Sein Win, Than Htun, U Ko Oo, Nay Myo Kyaw were arrested in Magwe division, reportedly to stop them from attending independence day celebrations in a nearby township.
On 15 January, Saw Wai, poet and leader of an organisation established by artists to care for orphans of AIDS victims, was arrested after authorities deciphered part of his "February 14" poem that contained a hidden message criticising Senior General Than Shwe.

For more information and a full list of people arrested and sentenced click here.

Comments

Comments are submitted by members of the public and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Amnesty International Australia. If you find a comment objectionable please contact the web editor.

Leona Kieran
7 February 2008, 09:36AM

thankyou for keeping us informed of these continued arrests

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