PRESS RELEASE FROM THE BURMA JUSTICE COMMITTEE
TRIAL OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI ILLEGAL AND AGAINST INTERNATIONAL LAW
English Barristers barred from attending trial
Aung San Suu Kyi has been sent from house arrest to the notorious Insein Prison (the Burmese military regime’s main torture and detention centre) where, on Monday 18 May, she will stand trial.
That trial date was fixed only yesterday. The Burma Justice Committee immediately contacted the Burmese Embassy and sought visas for a top-level delegation of English barristers to go to Burma to monitor the trial. The delegation was to be led by Timothy Dutton QC (Chairman of the Bar, 2008), Roy Amlot QC (Chairman of the Bar 2001) and Sappho Dias (Chairman of the BJC). The barristers would report on the trial’s compliance with basic international law on the right to a fair trial and the right not to be arbitrarily detained. But, whilst the BJC was told the Ambassador was available to consider the visa application and the request to attend the trial urgently, the Embassy indulged in delay, prevarication and contradiction, ultimately saying it would not be possible to give authorisation for visas or attendance at the trial in time. The Burmese Embassy in London has not provided the visas. It has effectively barred international rule of law monitors from the trial.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s offence is said to be that she broke the conditions of her house arrest because a United States citizen was in her home. He was, however, uninvited, swam across a lake to get in and refused to leave once he got there. In effect, she is being prosecuted because someone broke into her home.
The true reason for this ridiculous charge is widely accepted to be the Burmese Government’s need for a pretext to extend Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention which the military regime has itself stated will expire on 27 May 2009 after 6 years (although under Burmese law it in fact expired in May 2008 and under international law is illegal).
Aung San Suu Kyi has also been suffering from ill health but has recently been recovering under treatment from her doctor, Tin Myo Win. He has been arrested too. There has been no explanation for his arrest.
In March 2009, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention gave a judicial ruling (Opinion No. 46/2008) in a case brought to the UN by the Burma Justice Committee in relation to a number of trials in Insein Prison. The UN tribunal ruled that the Burmese government’s violations of the right to a fair trial had assumed “a grotesque character”.
Apart from the fact that Aung San Suu Kyi cannot conceivably have committed a crime because someone broke into her home, she has no prospect of receiving a fair trial where the trial is to be held in private inside Insein Prison. Any trial in private which cannot be impartially observed will be illegal in international law. It will also be a direct breach by the Burmese Government of the UN’s judicial ruling earlier this year that the military trials inside Insein Prison are contrary to the most basic human rights laws.
Adam Zellick, Vice-Chairman of the Burma Justice Committee, said
“The arrest and charging of Aung San Suu Kyi is not for any true crime and so is politically motivated. As such, it is unlawful. If the trial goes ahead on Monday inside Insein Prison in private, it is absolutely clear that it will be contrary to international law and contrary to fundamental human rights law.
“The BJC calls upon the Burmese Government if it persists in a trial, to hold the trial in public, with an impartial court, with proper defence representation, and to allow English barristers sent by the Burma Justice Committee to attend the trial as human rights monitors. Only an impartial trial with a fair defence and held in public, subject to assessment for human rights abuses, is capable of being a fair trial. A trial in private in Insein Prison will be the same sham and as illegal as all the other trials held there.
“By claiming lack of time to issue visas and failing to provide visas urgently, the military regime has effectively barred international human rights monitors from the trial. It confirms again that the authorities have no intention at all to respect the rule of law. The trial has been cynically scheduled on a day’s notice so as to restrict time for defence preparation and to ensure it is finished in private before anyone can get there. But expert observers of the highest calibre from the English Bar are ready to go and could be there. The failure to issue visas is deliberate and calculated – shortage of time is no excuse – if the trial could be fixed in a day so could visas have been issued.”
For more information, or a copy of Opinion No. 46/2008, please call Camilla Barker on 0207 067 0330