Campaign News
Article in The Irrawaddy:
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled on the case of ethnic Kachin farmer Brawn Yung, who is serving a 21-year sentence in Myitkyina Prison, and called on the Burmese government to immediately release him and offer reparations because his detention is illegal.
Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, campaigns officer at Burma Campaign UK, said in a statement, “By keeping Brang Yung in jail it is President Thein Sein who is the one breaking the law, not Brang Yung.
“The failure to release political prisoners, even when the UN rules their detention is illegal, is yet another example of the backsliding of the reform process.” The campaign group is calling for a new independent review mechanism for political prisoners to be established in Burma.
You can take action to free Brang Yung here.
An article in the Myanmar Times today:
On July 15, 2013 – one year ago this week – President U Thein Sein stood next to David Cameron in London and told reporters, “By the end of the year there will be no prisoners of conscience in Myanmar.”
“The UK, US and rest of the international community made a tactical mistake by treating President Thein Sein’s promise as meaning the problem was solved, and relaxed pressure, rather than applying pressure to make sure he kept his promise,” said Ma Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, a London-based campaigns officer for Burma Campaign UK. “It is now clear that the issue of political prisoners will remain in Burma for years to come.”
A short video about the situation of the Rohingyas in Burma.
Burma Campaign UK is quoted in an article in The Diplomat:
“As long as the foundations of military rule remain in place, the large EU funds flowing into Myanmar carry the heavy risk of supporting authoritarianism, instead of democracy. “The process of closer partnership should be frozen, along with all programs building government capacity except for health and education,” said Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK. ‘EU aid should not be used to help build a more modern and efficient authoritarian government.'”
You can read the article here.
The British government is spending more than £60m a year on aid to Burma, but not all that aid is reaching the people who need it, and a lot is going on programmes which help the military-backed government. Here are nine ways to make improvements.
Read the list here on BuzzFeed.
Yesterday, there was a debate in the British Parliament on the persecution of the Rohingya and other minorities in Burma.
Speaking in the debate, David Ward MP said, “Burma Campaign UK has produced eight steps that it believes the British Government could take to improve human rights in Burma. First, the Government should put human rights—not trade or political reform, but human rights—at the top of the agenda, elevating human rights as the Government’s policy priority in Burma. Secondly, the Government should support an international investigation into human rights violations against the Rohingya. We hear about various internal investigations, but an international investigation is required into what the UN special rapporteur believes to be crimes against humanity.”
Article in Myanmar Times this week quotes Burma Campaign UK:
“Activists and human rights groups are urging Britain to maintain pressure on the government to combat sexual violence in conflict, as focus shifts to implementation of a plan to address the issue after Myanmar endorsed a UN declaration earlier this month.
“If sexual violence by the Burmese army continues unabated despite the government signing the declaration, it will be a blow not just to the credibility of the declaration, but also to the British government’s policy of soft diplomacy,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, told The Myanmar Times last week.”
