Watchlist enumeration forces teacher to return to exile in the US, even as govt pledges to trim roster
From The Myanmar Times:
“Several staff members from Burma Campaign UK believe they are still enumerated on the list as they have not yet been informed of their removal. In June, Burma Campaign UK wrote to the government asking for confirmation of which staff members remain on the roster and which have been removed.
“The NLD-led government should publish the blacklist and explain why human rights activists remain on it. Most governments have some form of blacklist to stop criminals or people who are a threat to the country, but people should not be blacklisted just because the government doesn’t like what they say,” Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, told The Myanmar Times.”
Speaking at University College London
Zoya Phan, Campaigns Manager at Burma Campaign UK, with students and professor from University College London (UCL), after a talk on human rights in Burma.
Myanmar’s Best Chance for Internal Peace
Interesting article in the Asia Sentinel:
“We need to learn from the history of the KIO’s 17 years ceasefire agreement with the Burmese military,” said Lum Zawng, a lawyer and General secretary of All Kachin Youth Union. “They [the army] always demanded to disarm first and accept the 2008 Constitution, but no ethnic armed organization wants to disarm first. They have always said that talks and a political agreement should come first.”
“Attacks on the TNLA by the RCSS highlight a nationwide problem of how main ethnic groups will address concerns and demands of smaller ethnic groups within their states,” said Mark Farmaner, the Director of Burma Campaign UK, a human rights advocacy group. “These problems will be very complex to work through.”
Human Rights Groups Call for Investigation into Destruction of Mosques
In Karen News:
A group of 19 community based organizations has called for an official investigation into the destruction of religious buildings in Burma.
The statement was signed on behalf of a range of ethnic and human rights groups both local and international including Burma Campaign UK, Fortify Rights, and the Kachin Women’s Association of Thailand.
The statement comes after a spate of violent attacks against Muslim places of worship. On June 1, a violent mob attacked and destroyed a Muslim prayer hall in Kachin State, and another mob destroyed a Mosque in the Bago region.
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi: Falling star or beacon of hope
Burma Campaign UK quoted in the Daily Mail:
“Meanwhile, the generals continue to wage war against several ethnic groups, who rose up against the central government following Myanmar’s independence from Britain in 1948. Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said his group has received more reports of atrocities by the military in Kachin and Shan states in recent months than similar periods last year under the military-dominated government.
Zoya Phan speaks at the opening of the Aung San Suu Kyi Park, Norway
Zoya Phan, Campaigns Manager at Burma Campaign UK, gave this speech at the opening of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Park in Froland, Norway on 19 June 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday:
Ladies and gentlemen,
I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be here today and to see people so many thousands of miles from our country would create a park like this and name it after our leader. It really gives us hope and encouragement. Everyone involved in the creation of this park has our thanks.
Ever since I came to Europe more than ten years ago, I have been attending events for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday.
Most of those times the events were held while Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest. They were not really celebrations. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday was an opportunity to remind the world that she and many hundreds of other political prisoners remained in jail. It was a time when the media, mostly banned from entering Burma, would report on what was going on.
So it is really wonderful to be here today, to celebrate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday with the opening of this park, at a time when she is not only free, but running the Burmese government.
The role Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has played in our struggle for freedom has been so vital. Within Burma she has been an inspiration to people, a brave and courageous woman who stood up to the half million strong army which we all feared.
And around the world, she was able to draw attention to what was going on in our country, to reach out to politicians, to media, to campaign organisations and to ordinary people, and mobilise international support.
That international support has been essential in bringing about the change we have seen in Burma so far. Never doubt the critical role that it played. And the government of Norway played a leading role in providing that support. For that, we are very grateful.
And we still need that support. As people from Burma, we are so happy to see the changes in our country so far. Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD are finally in government. Already there are plans to increase spending on health and education.
But at the same time we know the generals haven’t given up complete control. Far from it. The 2008 constitution they introduced gives them power and influence over every level of government. As far as they are concerned, the reform process is over. They don’t want to see any more change.
The Burmese Army is not under government control, and it is still attacking ethnic civilians. It breaks my heart that today in Burma, children are still forced to run for their lives as their villages are attacked by the Burmese Army, just as I was forced to run for my life 20 years ago. Until this is stopped, none of us can rest and we still need Norway’s support.
Naming this park after our leader means many things to us. It is a sign of acknowledgement and respect for a very special person who has made many sacrifices for her people. It is an import symbol of support and acceptance to the people from Burma who have been given a safe place to live here in Norway. And it is an act of solidarity with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and everyone from Burma, as we continue our struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights. Finally, I would like to say happy birthday Daw Aung San Suu Kyi!
Zoya Phan with former Norwegian PM Kjell Magne Bondevik at the opening of the Aung San Suu Kyi park,Norway, 19 Juen 2016
NLD-led government must abide by UN ruling to release Lahpai Gam
Our campaign to free Lahpai Gam, an ethnic Kachin farmer illegally imprisoned since 2012, is featured in Mizzima News:
The Burma Campaign UK has called for the NLD-led government to abide by the United Nations ruling that Lahpai Gam is detained illegally and release him immediately, according to a statement on 26 May.
Lahpai Gam was arrested in June 2012 by the military-backed government in Myanmar. He was charged under Article 17/1 of the Unlawful Association Act, and he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
According to the statement, he was brutally tortured and forced to make a false confession about his connection with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and different bombings in Kachin State. He was also accused of leaving the refugee camp several times to attend military training sessions with the KIA. According to his wife, during the interrogations, he was repeatedly kicked, beaten till his scalp was cut open and forced to drink water mixed with fuel. He was also forced to have sexual intercourse with another male prisoner.
After more than a year in detention, he was sentenced to 2 years prison in November 2013, and an additional 5 years were added to his sentence on 19th December 2013. An additional 14 years were added again to his sentence on 5th June 2014, and now he is serving a 21-year prison sentence in Myitkyina Prison.
In November 2013, a United Nations ruling stated that the detention of Lahpai Gam is arbitrary, contravening of Articles 13, 18, 19 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They have also called for the immediate release of Lahpai Gam and for adequate reparation.
“Lahpai Gam is a Kachin farmer who was brutally tortured and sentenced to 21 years in jail for something he did not do,” said Wai Hnin, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “He was targeted simply because he is a Christian and he belongs to the minority Kachin ethnic group. The UN has already ruled that the detention of Lahpai Gam is illegal but he still remains in jail. The NLD-led government must abide by the UN ruling and release Lahpai Gam immediately.”
Left for Dead
Free poet Maung Saungkha – British campaign group
Mizzima covers our campaign to free Maung Saungkha, a poet and pro-democracy activist imprisoned for posting a poem on Facebook:
Burma Campaign UK has called for the immediate and unconditional release of Maung Saungkha and urged the Myanmar government to reform the Prisoners of Conscience Affairs Committee and to ensure the release of Maung Saungkha and all remaining political prisoners in Myanmar.
Maung Saungkha is a Myanmar poet and pro-democracy activist. On 8th October 2015, he wrote a poem about having a portrait of a president tattooed on his penis. He posted the poem on Facebook. Former President Thein Sein’s spokesperson Zaw Htay saw the Facebook post and called for his prosecution and on the same day, police arrived at his house to arrest him. When he heard the charges had been filed against him, he went into hiding.
Fasting to protest against the imprisonment of U Gambira
By Veronica Pedrosa
From midnight (BST) tonight for a week, I shall be fasting to protest against the continued unjust incarceration of former monk and Saffron Revolution leader U Gambira and other less well-known political prisoners.
As Daw Suu herself asked many years ago, I want to use my freedom to help others gain theirs. I would like you to understand that my conscience simply cannot tolerate inaction in the face of this situation. Are some political prisoners more equal than others, as George Orwell might put it? Today’s decision to sentence Gambira to 6 months hard labour on an immigration offence is nothing less than a travesty. As the UN Special Rapporteur noted in a tweet earlier today: “#Please remember #Myanmar (2) #UHDR Art.13 (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”
Myanmar/Burma is to deserve the “newly-democratic” description being copied and pasted all over the internet and radio and television scripts, this kind of arbitrary detention must end and its perpetrators made accountable. What kind of democracy denies its citizens justice?
I think the sentence today is the result of a deal or at the very least an understanding between the NLD and the military.
The military have a particular and intense animosity towards Gambira as the most outspoken, stubborn, wily and reckless organizer of the Saffron Revolution in 2007. And yes, he’s a little crazy from the years of torture, but maybe also because that’s what it takes to stand up to mindless greed and tyranny and imagine it’s possible to do so without violence and through metta. This is the reason he was singled out for regular intense torture during his previous incarcerations. Long periods of solitary confinement, weeks manacled hand and foot, long periods in stress positions, regular beatings with a black bag over his head, two bouts of malaria, two hunger strikes (yes even in jail he spoke out for better conditions for him and his fellow prisoners), and worst of all to my mind, a form of chemical torture that I had never come across in all the years of reading about the practice of torture (started when I was a teenager with the regular updates from Task Force Detainees organized by Sister Mariani – some of my Philippine friends will know what I’m talking about). He has suffered enough and it was never for himself, it has always been for his dream of a better Burma.
This new sentence, I contend, reveals something of the cynical political horse-trading the NLD and military. Not a single one of those torturers, murderers, war criminals will be brought to account. Instead they are in power, at the very least apologists if not perpetrators. But Gambira is jailed, deprived of his freedom because the authorities have no interest in human dignity, rights. Only power and money.
Make no mistake, if they can do this to even one citizen, it’s difficult not to conclude that they can do it and will do it to whomever they wish.
Justice has lost its meaning, and become a mere throwaway word to appease the naive and credulous, even with an elected government made up of many former political prisoners themselves.
Gambira’s conviction and imprisonment today is living proof of that.
Once again I am posting here the letter Gambira sent from hiding during the Saffron Revolution, in effect a call for equal civil rights and opportunities for all irrespective of creed, race or class.
This movement came as a shock to the military junta and arguably led to the reforms that have put the NLD and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in government.
Gambira and his family are staunch supporters of Daw Suu and her party and have been disappointed by the criticisms aimed at them. Today in a Mandalay courtroom the disappointment has deepened.
If you wish to join my protest by skipping a meal please let me and the BCUK know on twitter or Facebook using the hashtags #FastForFreedom #FreeGambira. You can also write to the Burmese Attorney General Tun Tun Oo, urging him to ensure the immediate release of U Gambira and the remaining political prisoners, as well as to U Gambira himself to express your solidarity:
U Gambira (aka) Nyi Nyi Lwin
C/O The governor of Obo Prison
Obo Prison
Mandalay
Myanmar
Veronica Pedrosa is a freelance journalist and correspondent at Al Jazeera English.