Burma Campaign UK is calling on Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire MP to ensure his department stops issuing misleading statements and instead explain why he has not asked the Burmese government to release British political prisoner Phil Blackwood.
“When called out about abandoning a British political prisoner in a Burmese jail, the response of the British government has been to shoot the messenger,” said Mark Farmaner, Director of Burma Campaign UK. “In defending itself against inaction for Phil Blackwood, the Foreign Office has been more critical of Burma Campaign UK than of the military backed government which locked him up.”
On Monday Burma Campaign UK accused Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire of abandoning British political prisoner Phil Blackwood, currently serving two and a half years hard labour in Burma’s notorious Insein jail.
Philip Blackwood, who has joint British and New Zealand citizenship, and two Burmese colleagues, Tun Thurein and Htut Ko Ko Lwin, were given two and a half years hard labour in March 2015 for ‘insulting Buddhism’. A picture of Buddha wearing headphones had been uploaded on the Facebook page of the bar they worked in. Buddhist nationalists protested and the Burmese government jumped on the case to try to win support from nationalists. The trial and convictions were clearly politically motivated.
Hugo Swire appears unwilling to publicly defend his own actions and decisions. Instead he has hidden behind unnamed spokespeople for the Foreign Office who have accused Burma Campaign UK of making misleading statements. In fact it is the Foreign Office who are issuing misleading statements. They have been unable to refute a single fact in our media release.
Our media release on Monday 5th October, available here, accused Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire of not calling on the government of Burma to release Phil Blackwood. Minister Hugo Swire visited Burma in late July without calling for his release. The Foreign Office have not denied that Hugo Swire has not called on the Burmese government to release Phil Blackwood. Instead, they decided to try to divert attention by accusing Burma Campaign UK of saying something in our statement that we didn’t say, and then criticised us for saying something we didn’t say.
For example, on The Times website on Monday 5th October, the Foreign Office was quoted as saying:
“It is misleading for the Burma Campaign to suggest that we do not raise difficult issues with the Burmese government – human rights, including political prisoners, remain a central part of our engagement. Hugo Swire set out our concerns very clearly on a range of human rights issues during his visit in July, and again at the UN last week…..It is regrettable that the Burma Campaign should be misrepresenting the Government’s Burma policy at this crucial moment in Burma’s reform process.”
They stated that we accused them of not raising difficult issues with the government. Our media release made no mention of this. They accuse us of misrepresenting the government’s Burma policy. We asked them to return to prioritising human rights. The most senior official at the Foreign Office, Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Secretary at the Foreign Office, recently stated when asked about human rights as a policy priority: “…I say that although it is one of the things we follow, it is not one of our top priorities.”
They also attempt to mislead by stating that the British Ambassador to Burma has raised the case of Phil Blackwood and his co-defendants. They carefully state that they have raised the case, rather than state that they have called for the release of Phil Blackwood and his colleagues. There is a big difference between the two.
Another attempt to mislead is by raising the issue of joint nationality. As our release of 5th October stated, this is a red herring. This is a political case, and consular arrangements between the UK and New Zealand do not prevent Hugo Swire from deploying every tool at his disposal to ensure an innocent British citizen jailed in Burma for political reasons is released.
In another attempt to mislead, the government has been referring to the fact that they call for the release of all political prisoners. As their reference to some statements to consular arrangements with New Zealand indicates, to date they have not even accepted that Phil Blackwood and his colleagues are political prisoners. Political cases are not solely dealt with at a consular level so this is another red herring.
In addition, when faced with criticism from MPs in Parliament that he is not doing enough to persuade the government of Burma to release political prisoners, Hugo Swire often attempts to defend himself by naming Burmese political prisoners he has raised with the Burmese government. If he can raise individual cases of Burmese political prisoners, why can’t he raise the case of Phil Blackwood, a British political prisoner in a Burmese jail?
“The response from the Foreign Office leads us to conclude that Hugo Swire knows what he has done is wrong,” said Mark Farmaner. “If Swire was proud of doing nothing for Phil Blackwood and his colleagues, he’d be saying ‘no I haven’t called for their release and this is why’. Instead he tries to hide behind his officials and misleading statements. The fact remains that the British government should be doing everything they can to ensure Phil Blackwood and his colleagues are released.”
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