UPDATE (Burma): Three innocent men are tortured into confessing to a bomb plot

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Update: AHRC-UAU-018-2009

6 August 2009

[RE: AHRC-UAC-183-2008: BURMA: At least three more rights defenders arrested over cyclone relief work]
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BURMA: Three innocent men are tortured into confessing to a bomb plot

ISSUES: Military government; judicial system; torture; freedom of expression
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Dear friends,

Last year the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued an urgent appeal in the case of U Myint Aye, the leader of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters group in Burma whom police and other officials arrested without giving a reason. Later the military regime there organised a press conference in which it accused him of masterminding a bomb plot, and they implicated other human rights defenders and political opponents of the regime. The AHRC has since obtained full details of the unjust trials and convictions of Myint Aye and two other men.

UPDATED INFORMATION:

As we reported a year ago, a team of police and administrative officers came to the house of U Myint Aye, the chairman of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP) group on 8 August 2008 and after searching the house and taking some documents and other items, they told Myint Aye to go with them for a short while; however he did not return (UAC-183-2008).

In September the military regime held a press conference in which it made the fanciful accusation that Myint Aye was the mastermind of a terrorist plot and that he had arranged for two other men, Yan Shwe and Zaw Zaw Aung, to explode a bomb at the office of a government organisation.

The three were then tried and sentenced to life imprisonment for the offence, as well as two other offences: contact with unlawful groups abroad and having gone in and out of the country illegally. However the cases against the three men were concocted and had no legal basis. continue
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2009/3228/

[AHRC Forwarded Open Letter] THAILAND: Protect Pol (Abdulla) and every child born on Thai soil from illegal immigrant parents who had been permitted to temporarily reside on special basis

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the open letter from the Human Rights for Development Foundation (HRDF) had coordinated with Bangkok Clinic for Rights and Legal Personality Legal Counseling (Bangkok Clinic) and Stateless Watch for Research and Development Institute of Thailand (SWIT) to send the legal opinion and proposal to call for Royal Thai Government to protect Pol (Abdulla) and every child born on Thai soil from illegal immigrant parents who had been permitted to temporarily reside on special basis (A child born in Thailand, under the provision of Section 7 bis para I of the Nationality Act, 1965 (2nd Amendment 1992)).

Asian Human Rights Commission
Hong Kong
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-FOL-010-2009
August 4, 2009

A Open Letter from the Human Rights for Development Foundation (HRDF), Bangkok Clinic for Rights and Legal Personality Legal Counseling (Bangkok Clinic) and Stateless Watch for Research and Development Institute of Thailand (SWIT) and Legal opinion and proposal forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

THAILAND: Protect Pol (Abdulla) and every child born on Thai soil from illegal immigrant parents who had been permitted to temporarily reside on special basis

No. Special 1/2009

3 August 2009

Dear His Excellency, the Prime Minister

RE: Cover letter for Legal Opinion and Proposal to protect Pol (Abdulla) and every child born on Thai soil from illegal immigrant parents who had been permitted to temporarily reside on special basis (A child born in Thailand, under the provision of Section 7 bis para I of the Nationality Act, 1965 (2nd Amendment 1992)) continue

http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2009statements/2157/

Arrest of a three year old boy, Pol or Abdullah, a child of a registered migrant worker, who was permitted to work and temporarily reside in Thailand, while his mother was selling ‘roti’ in a market in Mueang District, Samutprakarn Province.

Regional rights group concerned over arrest of migrant child
by Usa Pichai
Thursday, 06 August 2009 16:00

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A regional human rights body has urged Thailand’s government to protect children of migrant parents, from arrest and forced repatriation.

On Wednesday, the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission released an open letter, which was submitted to Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, urging the Thai government to protect the rights of children, who were born in Thailand to illegal immigrant parents, who had been permitted to temporarily reside in the country on a special basis.

The gesture came following a case of the arrest of a three year old boy, Pol or Abdullah, a child of a registered migrant worker, who was permitted to work and temporarily reside in Thailand, while his mother was selling ‘roti’ in a market in Mueang District, Samutprakarn Province.

The boy was detained at Suan Plu immigration center, with a possibility of deportation at 22.00 pm on 27 July, 2009. The boy was allegedly charged with illegal entry into Thailand, under the provisions of Section 54, of the Immigration Act (1979).

Officers of the Human Rights for Development Foundation (HRDF) had coordinated with other rights groups, including the Lawyer Council of Thailand, and sought to petition the Immigration Bureau, to suspend the deportation and release the child immediately. The boy was later released from the immigration detention center on July 28, 2009.

“Despite the boy having been released and returned to the family, related rights groups are concerned that many state agencies did not have accurate and correct understanding about legal facts or the legal personality of Pol and other children sharing the same legal status with him. Thus these children were often arrested, detained and deported,” AHRC said in a statement.

– Emerging from a meeting with his Group of Friend on Myanmar, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was asked by Inner City Press what he makes of reports that Myanmar is developing a nuclear reactor or even, in an early stage, nuclear weapons with the assistance of North Korea and Russia. “I do not have any information on that,” Mr. Ban replied, “therefore I am not able to comment on that.”

Afterwards, a senior Ban advisor told Inner City Press that Mr. Ban had been prepared to answer the question, and that the planned if-asked talking point was that the UN does not have an substantial or verifiable information, but that if it is true, it is a matter of grave concern as this is precisely the moment the international community should be driving toward non-proliferation. Oh that Ban had said that.

It was also explained to Inner City Press that if it had managed to ask if Ban favors modification of the country’s constitution, pushed through in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which devotes 25% of seats to people with military backgrounds, Ban probably would not have answer. “The Group of Friends is divided on that,” the source explained. continue
http://www.innercitypress.com/banvac2myanmar080509.html

8888 Uprising Pictures by Khitpyaing News

http://www.khitpyaingnews.org/photo_week/50809/50809.php

Feraya “My poem on hearing the UNSC’s decision to discuss Burma”

When the U.N. Security Council decided to discuss human rights violations by Myanmar on Sept. 15, 2006, , this was how I felt …

Burma has been in the dark for so long now,
It has been like the eclipse of the sun
During the full eclipse darkness descends,
As the moon gradually obscures the disc of the sun
Until finally the light is completely blocked out
Then within a space of time the light returns
And so it is that there are
Points in time when there is darkness and
Then the light shines forth like a new dawn.

However, changes are happening,
And clouds are clearing at long last
We must be strong,
Rock-like in our knowing
We must not give up hope
We must keep calm
And keep each other calm
And cultivate stillness within.

Where there is darkness
Your light will shine forth
Do not get involved with darkness
Be calm, be joyful
And most of all
Radiate love
For all is happening as it should
In the dance of the Universe.

Do not despair,
Do not give up hope,
For soon there will come a time
When we will all bathe in
The great natural light of Freedom.

The Unsung Heroes; In Burma, Democracy’s Price Can Be Life

8.8.88 Rememberance of Burma’s Hero’s by buffalohair

As we approach the rememberance of 8.8.88 I am compelled to post the pictures of all the forgotten champions of Burma’s struggle for democracy. Myo Yan Naung Thein is a hero for his courage to stand for his people. He also suffers from untreated illness and like the other political prisoners he is left to die from treatable diseases in yet another ghoulish act of selective genocide perpetrated by the criminal regime of Than shwe.
NAME OF POLITICAL PRISONER: Myo Yan Naung Thein
Age: 34
EDUCATION: Architect, Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT)
OCCUPATION: French Language Instructor, Tourist Guide, Former P.P
ARREST DATE: 14 December 2007
SECTION OF LAW: 505/b
SENTENCING HISTORY: 2 years on 13 November 2008
COURT HEARING: Pabedan Township Court and Insein prison special court
NAME OF PRISON: Thandwe prison from Kyauk Phyu and Insien prison
IMMEDIATE HEALTH CONCERNS:
Myo Yan Naung Thein is in urgent need of specialist medical treatment from a neurologist. During detention following his arrest, he was tortured by Special Branch and Swan-Arr-Shin, junta sponsored militias. He was severely beaten and suffered head injuries. His nervous system appears to have been damaged, as he has been suffering from paralysis down the left-hand side of his body and is unable to walk properly. On 29 May 2008 his brother Myo Thein reported to the media that Myo Yan Naung Thein’s medical condition is rapidly deteriorating. He has been vomiting daily and cannot sleep. He has required assistance to help him walk to the visiting room to see his family on visiting days.

In May 2008, Myo Yan Naung Thein asked the prison authorities to let him see a neurologist, but was punished for this request by being held for two weeks in solitary confinement in an Ayutheit cell, where prisoners with mental problems are normally held. He was reportedly given medication for a mental health problem, even though his problem is neurological not mental. Whilst he was in this cell he had to sit in the wet, as the roof of the building had not yet been properly repaired following the damage caused by Cyclone Nargis.