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IDHAE
INFORMATION
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U
Aye Myint, a prominent human rights lawyer, who has
handled many cases concerning forced labour and land confiscation in Burma,
was taken into custody on Tuesday. U Aye Myint was arrested in Pegu, north of
Rangoon, at 2pm. His whereabouts are currently unknown. On September 26th, group of lawyers in Burma have established a
new union to introduce "genuine politics" to the country and defy
what they called the regime's "forced politics" as protests
continued for a tenth day despite harsh warnings in the media and through
loudspeakers on government vehicles. In a preliminary statement, a copy of which was
obtained by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the Lawyer's Union of
Burma said that for half a century the country had been repressed and
impoverished by the army The lawyers called for the government to accept
the people's demands for reductions in commodity prices, the release of all
political prisoners, and dialogue for national reconciliation. IDHAE
: Burma was first brought under interim military rule in 1958. It has
been under it continuously since 1962. Human rights violations in Myanmar are
widespread and systematic. They include the use of child soldiers and forced
labour. Laws criminalize peaceful expression of peaceful dissent. Most senior
opposition figures are imprisoned or detained, and accordind to Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners AAPP (Burma) more than 1158 political prisoners were held in
deteriorating prison conditions on August 21th 2007. People are frequently
arrested without warrant and held incommunicado; torture and other cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment are common, especially during interrogation
and in custody awaiting trial. Judicial proceedings against political
detainees fall short of international standards for fair trial. Defendants
are often denied the right to legal counsel and prosecutors have relied on
confessions extracted through torture. Lawyer U Aye Myint (alias Aye Myint Maung) and eight other persons were arrested on 17 July 2003 by members of the
Military Intelligence and charged
under section 122 of the Penal Code for High Treason for their antigovernment
activities. They
were convincted and sentenced to death
on 28 November 2003 by a Yangoon Martial Court under article 122/1 of the law
for high treason for supposedly trying to murder the leaders of the SDPC. The
nine were also accused of having contacts with political organizations in
exile partly on the basis that he had communicated with the ILO. After
pressyure by ILO the death sentencewas commuted to three years’ imprisonment,
for treason, . U Aye Myint was
released in January 2005. On 5 June
2005, local officials in Daik-U township, Pegu Division (north of
Rangoon Division), arranged a meeting with around 100 farmers in Phaungdawthi
Village Tract. The secretary of the local council informed the farmers that
they would be allocated 132 acres out of 452 acres of designated pastureland
for their cattle to graze upon. The remainder of the land would be divided up
among the army, army supply corps, a government-established mass mobilisation
body (the Union Solidarity and Development Association) and the township army
veterans' association. The farmers
were unhappy as this was officially designated pastureland and they felt that
the amount of land left for their cattle would be insufficient. They sought
the assistance of lawyer U Aye Myint to lodge a
complaint. The following day, June 6, Aye Myint assisted in
writing a letter of complaint to the representative of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) in Rangoon, which was signed by 15 farmers. A group
of the farmers later met the ILO representative, together with two local
officials who were supportive of their complaint. The township
authorities reacted by arresting Aye Myint on the night of
August 27, 2005. According to his son's testimony in court, police and
government officers arrived at the family residence at about 11:30pm on the
pretext of checking for illegal visitors. (In Burma all visitors staying
overnight away from their own house must be registered.) After that they said
they had come to arrest Aye Myint, and took him away to
detention at the Daik-U Township Police Station. On October
10, the preliminary hearings against Aye Myint began in the
Daik-U Township Court, on a charge of having distributed false
information, under an antiquated emergency regulation. The court refused two
applications for bail.
U Aye Myint was on 8 july 2006 freed from prison after
serving 11 months of a seven year sentence after strenuous international
pressure and attention. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) had given
the authorities in Burma until the end of July to release Aye Myint, who had
helped lodge a complaint to ILO staff, or face strong international legal
action. Aye Myint has said that he will continue to take up rights-related
cases, but it is unclear at this stage whether his licence to practice law
will be returned to him or not. RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in English or your own
language: - urging the
authorities to immediately and unconditionally release U Aye Mynt and
also Su Su Nway; - urging the
authorities to immediately ensure that while in detention, all four are
granted access to lawyers, families and medical treatment; - calling on the
authorities to treat these four as well as all other detainees humanely, and
not subject them to torture or other ill-treatment; - calling on the
authorities to cease the systematic and arbitrary detention of suspected
sympathizers or family members of protestors as “hostages” in violation of
international law; - calling for the release
of all those who were arrested for exercising their right to freedom of
expression of assembly during the crackdown, as well as all prisoners of
conscience held before the recent events. APPEALS TO: Nyan Win Ambassade de l’Union de
Myanmar PLEASE SEND
APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
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