Negotiations fail in second case against migrant activist Andy Hall
Mizzima news story including our picture from the London protest at Thai Embassy in support of migrant rights activist Andy Hall.
NGO calls for the immediate release of Bi Mon Te Nay journalists
Article in Mizzima about our campaign to free journalists at the Bi Mon Te Nay Journal.
“The imprisonment of the Bi Mon Te Nay’s journalists proves that the reform process is backsliding,” said Anna Roberts, executive director at Burma Campaign UK. “Journalists should have freedom to report without being constantly harassed and arrested and thrown into jail by Thein Sein’s government. Burma won’t be able to achieve genuine democracy without press freedom and free media.”
UK foreign minister ‘sticks head in the sand’ over Myanmar rights: NGO
Burma Campaign UK’s press release featured in Mizzima:
“The British Foreign Office has dropped human rights as a priority in Myanmar and instead now focuses on promoting trade, claims Burma Campaign UK.
Dubbing British Foreign Office Minister Hugo Swire an “ostrich”, the rights NGO said the minister ducked recent questions in the British Parliament about the growing number of political prisoners in Myanmar in a push “to win business deals” with the government, according to the group’s press release October 29.
During Foreign Office questions in Parliament October 28, Sir Bob Russell MP asked Mr Swire how many additional political prisoners have been arrested this year. Rather than admit that the number of political prisoners has more than doubled, with hundreds more having been arrested and awaiting trial, the rights groups says Mr Swire bizarrely started talking about the release of 3,000 petty criminals.
The group says Mr Swire was “sticking his head in the sand, trying not to see or talk about human rights problems” in Myanmar.“
Wirat Piyapornpaiboon Shoots the Messenger
An article by Mark Farmaner, Director at Burma Campaign UK, in Huffington Post.
Andy Hall is a migration researcher who defends the rights of migrants in Thailand, including migrants from Burma. He documented exploitation of migrant workers at a factory owned by Wirat Piyapornpaiboon’s Natural Fruit company. Instead of taking action to end human rights violations against his workers, he is taking legal action against Andy Hall. He is suing him on a range of charges, including defamation, saying that he was “broadcasting false statements to public media'” and also demanding damages. If convicted, Andy Hall could be imprisoned for seven or more years and fined more than £6.6m (around $10m).
Drop the charges against Andy Hall!
Join us outside the Thai embassy in London on Wednesday 29th October at 4.30pm, to fight for the charges against workers’ rights defender Andy Hall to be dropped.
Andy Hall is a researcher who defends the rights of migrants in Thailand, including migrants from Burma. He is facing millions of pounds in fines and up to ten years in a Thai prison, just for exposing human rights abuses in a Thai pineapple factory.
When:
4:30pm Wednesday 29th October
2014
Where:
Royal Thai Embassy
29-30 Queen’s Gate
South Kensington
London
SW7 5JB
Nearest tube: South Kensington
Background
Andy helped expose how a factory in Thailand was committing human rights abuses against migrant workers in its factory. Abuses included child labour, workers being beaten, having documents confiscated, being paid illegally low wages and facing dangerous working conditions.
Instead of the company taking action to stop these abuses, it has launched legal cases for defamation against Andy Hall. If convicted he could face up to ten years in jail and fines of more than £8 million.
This case is a clear attempt to silence Andy Hall and intimidate all those working to protect migrant workers in Thailand, the majority of whom are from Burma. It is an attack on free speech, and threatens work to improve the rights of migrant workers in Thailand.
Burma Campaign UK quoted in Myanmar Times
‘The European Union has refused to back away from plans to submit a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly on Myanmar’s human rights record, despite President U Thein Sein’s insistence that they are no longer needed …
Mr Farmaner said President U Thein Sein’s speech in Milan was part of a “diplomatic offensive” aimed at building opposition to the special rapporteur mandate.
“The government is hoping that if it can stop the resolutions it can stop these reports,” he said. “Rather than end human rights abuses, it is trying to cover them up.”’
Economic Reforms ‘Given Greater Priority’ Than Political Freedom
Article in the Irrawaddy quotes Burma Campaign UK:
Economic reform has taken preference over political reform in Burma, said an international human rights group campaigning for the release of what it terms political prisoners still jailed in the country.
The Burma Campaign UK is urging Britain’s foreign secretary to pressure the Naypyidaw government as part of its No Political Prisoner Left Behind campaign.
“Economic reform has been given greater priority than political reforms by the Burmese government, yet still Burma is being ranked as one of the most difficult countries in the world to do business in,” campaign director Mark Farmaner told The Irrawaddy.
He was referring to a recent World Bank global study that ranked Burma as one of the worst places to do business because of numerous bureaucratic and legal obstacles. For example, a company wishing to build a warehouse has to go through 16 application processes which on average takes 159 days.
“The real beneficiaries of economic reforms in Burma are the same business cronies who were dominating the economy before the reforms began. The business cronies have key sectors of the economy stitched up, making it hard for foreign businesses or small and medium size Burmese businesses to compete,” said Farmaner.
Burma Campaign UK is petitioning the British government to pressure Naypyidaw to free Htin Kyaw, a leader of the Movement for Democracy Current Force that campaigns against land grabbing. He was arrested in May for protesting without permission and distributing leaflets that criticized the government, said Farmaner. Htin Kyaw is now serving a nine-year sentence in Insein prison.
On the Frontline: Poverty, Opium and Militarisation in Modern Burma’s Golden Triangle
An article by Burma Campaign UK’s Researcher Alec Scott.
‘In the past 8 years opium production in Burma has nearly tripled. Ninety-seven percent of Southeast Asia’s opium is produced in Burma, with 92% of production located in Shan State in the east of the country. Shan State is mountainous and home to many ethnic peoples, such as the Ta’ang whose villages and pagodas cover the hilltops of the state’s northern townships. This tortuous landscape of tea plantations and paddy farms has become one of the epicenters of the region’s bourgeoning heroin and methamphetamine trade.
In the poor and largely inaccessible villages of northern Shan State’s Namkham Township up to 80% of young Ta’ang men are addicted to drugs, namely heroin and an Amphetamine Type Stimulant (ATS) known as Yabba. “In our Ta’ang area drugs can be found and bought everywhere and many people are becoming addicts. Because of this the education and healthcare situation is getting very low in Ta’ang communities”, explained U Ban Di Sa, the Buddhist monk and founder of the Ta’ang Monk’s Union. U Ban Di Sa accused the central government of being complicit in the drugs trade, saying that “The central government has used drugs as a political tool to maintain their power.”’
Burma’s President Thein Sein in the Hague At Last
Article in the Huffington Post by Mark Farmaner, Director at Burma Campaign UK.
“This week Thein Sein, President of Burma, will be visiting The Hague, in the Netherlands. As a man with a lot of blood on his hands, you might be thinking this is long overdue. But instead of being indicted at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity, Thein Sein will be receiving red carpet treatment from the Dutch government.
In a few short years, the Netherlands has gone from a country that strongly supported human rights in Burma, to a country prepared to ignore the multiple violations of international law since Thein Sein became President in 2011, and the numerous violations of international law that took place during the 14 years that he was on the ruling council of the previous military dictatorship.”
