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.
Aung San Suu Kyi must stand up for embattled minorities
Burma Campaign UK Patron Glenys Kinnock’s letter is published in the Observer:
Gethin Chamberlain, in his excellent report on the post-election challenges faced by Aung San Suu Kyi and others (News), poses several questions, not least about the plight of the Rohingya Muslim minority who are facing relentless persecution. In addition, the control and the power belong, as ever, to the army, which still holds a quarter of parliamentary seats .
Deep concerns are being expressed and a recent report by the UN Special Rapporteur for Burma has said that “the Rohingya people are gradually been decimated”. Only last week, 65 Rohingyas were drowned as they tried to flee the country in flimsy boats .
The Observer report is timely because it has given us a rare and convincing account of the challenges ahead. Aung San Suu Kyi represents the ambition that Myanmar can become a democratic country and the hope is that she will finally be prepared to stand up for the rights of Muslim people.
Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead
House of Lords
UK campaign group calls for release of U Gambira
Our campaign to free U Gambira is featured in Mizzima News:
Free U Gambira
U Gambira was a leader of the 2007 Saffron Revolution and a former political prisoner. He was arrested in 2007 and sentenced to 68 years in prison. He was brutally tortured and mistreated in prison, and has permanent health problems as a result. He was released in 2012.
On 19th January 2016, he was arrested by around 20 police officers at his hotel room in Mandalay. He was charged under the Burma 1947 Immigration Act for illegally crossing the border and entering the country. U Gambira, who now lives in Thailand, travelled to Burma to obtain a new passport, and he was able to cross the Thailand-Burma at an official crossing point without facing any problems.
He is currently being detained in Obo prison while his trial continues. He was refused bail despite the fact that he is suffering from physical and mental illness, which requires him to take regular medication.
Please take action to free U Gambira and all remaining political prisoners in Burma.
Fantastic news from Burma
Around 180 political prisoners in Burma have been released in the last two weeks.
Burma Campaign UK was established after the military regime refused to accept the election result in 1990. Now at last, after years of campaigning in Burma and internationally, there is an NLD-led government that the people of Burma have voted for. And already we are seeing positive changes, with political prisoners starting to be released.
These releases show that campaigning does work. However, there are many political prisoners remaining in jail. For example, Kachin farmer Lahpai Gam, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail under false accusations, is still in jail. It is very important that people like Lahpai Gam are not forgotten.
If we draw the attention of the NLD-led government to the remaining political prisoners, hopefully they will also be released. So we are going to continue our campaigns for the release of all remaining political prisoners in Burma so they can also go home and be with their families. We still need your help to make that happen.
Released political prisoners who we campaigned for include:
Naw Ohn Hla Released!
A prominent woman activist, Naw Ohn Hla, was arrested for protesting outside the Chinese Embassy in Rangoon. She was sentenced to 6 years and 2 months with hard labour in Insein Prison in Rangoon.
Htin Lin Oo Released!
Htin Lin Oo is a writer and a former Information Officer from the National League for Democracy (NLD). On 23rd October 2014, he gave a speech at a literary event in Chaung-U Township in Northern Burma. During his speech he criticised the use of Buddhism to promote discrimination and prejudice in the country. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Union leaders Released!
Naing Htay Lwin and Myo Min Min are two union leaders who were arrested for organising protests calling for a pay rise of $1 a day. They were arrested for protesting without permission, and they were also falsely accused of advocating violence during protests. They were sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison.
Aung Soe Released!
Aung Soe is a member of Yangon People’s Support Network and a former political prisoner. He has been arrested numerous times for his peaceful activities. In 2013, he was arrested and sentenced to eleven and a half years in prison for his part organising protests with farmers to plough land which had been confiscated by the Burmese government.
Htin Kyaw Released!
Htin Kyaw, a human rights activist, has been repeatedly arrested and jailed for his peaceful political activities. He was arrested on 5th May 2014, and charged under two different counts including under Article 18 of the Peaceful Assembly Law. He was sentenced to 13 years and 6 months in Insein prison.
Nilar Thein Released!
Nilar Thein was arrested by police for allegedly supporting student protests against the controversial Education Bill last year. Nilar Thein was charged under Article 18 of the Peaceful Procession Law. She was on trial while being remained in detention.
Where Has Burma’s Peace Money Gone?
Article in the Irrawaddy today quoting Burma Campaign UK director Mark Farmaner:
Under former President Thein Sein’s government, over US$100 million poured into Burma’s peace programs by foreign governments and institutions.
As the military-backed administration has given way to a National League for Democracy (NLD)-led government, questions linger about the transparency and influence of international funds on the peace process—critics argue that this aid has thus provided war-affected ethnic communities with little to no benefit. …
Burma Campaign UK’s Farmaner said that a lack of transparency surrounding aid to the peace process indicates that it is time for international donors to rethink their approach, and strive for more inclusivity. “By backing the MPC with millions of euros, [the EU] was seen by many ethnic people to have taken the government side,” said Farmaner.
This was echoed by Audun Aagre, director of the NGO Norwegian Burma Committee, who told The Irrawaddy that unbalanced support by international donors is the most pressing issue regarding current peace funding. “Instead of strengthening these systems, with a long term goal of merging the different structures into a federal union, the international community cut support, and channeled these funds through Naypyidaw with MPC as a gatekeeper,” he said.
At the NASUWT conference in Birmingham
We are at the NASUWT’s conference in Birmingham to ask delegates and supporters to stand with the women of Burma to end rape and sexual violence.
NASUWT is one of the biggest teachers unions in the UK and a great supporter of freedom and democracy in Burma.
