Burma Campaign UK today urged Hugo Swire MP, British Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for Burma, to push the military-backed government in Burma to secure the unconditional release of Aung Naing and to repeal the repressive laws which put political prisoners in jail.
As part of the No Political Prisoner Left Behind campaign, Burma Campaign UK is highlighting a case of a political prisoner every month to draw attention to hundreds of political prisoners still in jail. The political prisoner for this month is Aung Naing.
Aung Naing is an activist from Burma, and he is a son of U Kyaw Min, who is a former political prisoner. In 1999, Aung Naing was arrested for his involvement in a student protest the previous year. He was falsely accused of possessing drugs and charged under the Narcotics Act. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison with hard labour in Insein Prison.
In 2005, his family members, including his father, were arrested and Aung Naing was put on trial again along with his family. They all were charged with two counts including under Section 18 of the 1982 Citizenship Law with the accusation of obtaining Burmese citizenship and concealing their Rohingya origins. The entire family is from the Rohingya ethnic minority group.
The Citizenship Law introduced by General Ne Win in 1982 is not compatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or with Burma’s legal obligations under international treaties. It arbitrarily stripped many people in Burma of the right to citizenship.
According to the verdict from the 2005 trial, 17 more years were added to Aung Naing’s existing 26- year prison sentence. However, due to a Presidential amnesty, Aung Naing received a reduction on his prison sentence to 17 years. His family were released in 2012 but he still remains in jail. According to his family members, he has been suffering from heart problems and he urgently needs an eye operation.
“Although high profile political prisoners have been released, all the repressive laws which put them in prison in the first place still remain in place,” said Wai Hnin, Campaigns Officer at Burma Campaign UK. “Unless these repressive laws are repealed, people in Burma will still be subject to arbitrary arrest, torture and harassment by the military-backed government.”