Amnesty International Report 1999 - Myanmar

MYANMAR

More than 1,200 political prisoners arrested in previous years, including 89 prisoners of conscience and hundreds of possible prisoners of conscience, remained in prison throughout the year. Hundreds of people were arrested for political reasons. Political prisoners were tortured and ill-treated, and held in conditions that amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Members of ethnic minorities continued to suffer human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions, torture, ill-treatment during forced portering, and other forms of forced labour and forcible relocations. Six political prisoners were sentenced to death. No executions were known to have taken place.

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), chaired by General Than Shwe, continued to rule by decree in the absence of a constitution. Martial law decrees severely restricting the rights to freedom of expression and assembly remained in force. Because of strict censorship and restrictions on freedom of expression, and lack of access to the country by independent human rights monitors and most journalists, information about human rights violations was limited.

The National Convention, which was convened by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC, the previous name of the military government) in 1993 to agree principles for a new constitution and was adjourned in March 1996, did not meet during the year. Throughout the year the National League for Democracy (NLD), the legal opposition party led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, appealed to the SPDC to enter into dialogue. In August the SPDC held a meeting with senior NLD leaders which Daw Aung San Suu Kyi did not attend.

In June the NLD resolved to demand that the SPDC convene in 60 days the parliament elected in May 1990 when the NLD won almost 82 per cent of the seats. In August the NLD declared that it would convene a parliament itself if the SPDC did not do so. In a pre-emptive move to block parliament from meeting, the SPDC arrested hundreds of NLD members between May and September, including NLD members-of-parliament-elect. The SPDC stated that more than 300 of them had subsequently been released; the NLD put the figure at less than 100. In September the NLD appointed a 10-member committee, which it said represented elected NLD members of parliament.

In July the SPDC refused to allow Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to visit NLD members outside Yangon, the capital. She remained in her car surrounded by security forces for several days before being forced to return home. On at least three other occasions she was prevented from travelling outside of Yangon.

The 10th anniversary of the August massive pro-democracy uprising and the subsequent military coup of September 1988 passed without major unrest. However, 18 foreign nationals who entered the country on tourist visas and handed out leaflets in Yangon expressing solidarity with the Burmese people on the 10th anniversary date, were arrested and detained for five days. They were then sentenced after a summary trial to five years' imprisonment with hard labour. Their sentences were suspended and they were all immediately deported.

There was no progress in cease-fire talks between the SPDC and the armed opposition groups the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP). Skirmishes between government forces and the KNU, the KNPP and the Shan State Army (formerly the Shan United Revolutionary Army) continued throughout the year.

Some 21,800 Rohingyas (Burmese Muslims from the Rakhine State) remained in two refugee camps in Bangladesh. In February the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Bangladesh government agreed a repatriation plan, despite continuing human rights violations in the Rakhine State. Repatriations under UNHCR  supervision resumed in November after the SPDC agreed to take back 7,000 refugees. For the first time the Thai authorities allowed the UNHCR  a permanent presence on the Thailand-Myanmar border to monitor the safety of over 100,000 Burmese refugees in camps.

In January the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar submitted his report to the UN Commission on Human Rights. In April the Commission adopted by consensus an extremely strong resolution, which extended the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur for a further year. The resolution expressed its deep concern "at the absence of due process of law, including arbitrary arrest… inhuman treatment of prisoners… [and] violations of the rights of persons belonging to minorities…"  A resolution was also adopted by consensus at the UN General Assembly in December. The UN Special Rapporteur was still refused access to Myanmar, but in January and October the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General visited Myanmar. In August the SPDC refused entry to a Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General in the midst of the ongoing confrontation between the NLD and SPDC. In July and October the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the SPDC to respect human rights. The USA renewed sanctions banning new US investment in Myanmar, and in October the European Union (EU) extended its sanctions to include transit and tourist visas for members of Myanmar's military. The EU continued to block Myanmar from permanently joining the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM), although Myanmar had been admitted as a member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997.

In August the International Labour Organisation's (ILO's) Commission of Enquiry published a comprehensive report on Myanmar's failure to implement the provisions of ILO Convention No. 29 on forced labour, and stated that the SPDC was guilty of "an international crime that is also, if committed in a widespread or systematic manner, a crime against humanity".

More than 1,200 political prisoners arrested in previous years, including 89 prisoners of conscience and hundreds of possible prisoners of conscience, remained in detention. They included prisoners of conscience Dr Aung Khin Sint, U Win Htein, U Aye Win, U Win Tin, Dr Than Aung, U Myo Khin and Cho Aung Than (see Amnesty International Reports 1997 and 1998). Ten long-term political prisoners were known to have been released during the year; it was not clear if others had also been released.

Hundreds of people were arrested for political reasons. Among them was 81-year-old prisoner of conscience U Ohn Myint, an unofficial NLD adviser who was arrested in February for helping to write and distribute a history of the student movement in Myanmar. He was sentenced in April to seven years' imprisonment. Prisoner of conscience U Myo Htun, a businessman who helped to write the history, was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in March. In April it became known that he had been severely beaten and was in poor health in Insein Prison. In September, 81-year-old prisoner of conscience Dr U Saw Mra Aung, an ethnic Arakan and NLD-appointed head of the NLD's People's Parliament, was arrested and held without charge or trial.

In March the SPDC named 40 people allegedly involved in plans to detonate bombs and assassinate government officials. Thirty-nine of them were arrested. They were sentenced in April, six of them to death, the first time for several years that the death penalty was known to have been imposed for political offences. In October the SPDC announced the arrest of 54 people for involvement in passing out leaflets supporting the NLD and the convening of parliament.

NLD sources claimed that more than 1,000 NLD members, including almost 200 members-of- parliament-elect, were arrested between May and September. Some of them, including 84-year-old Thakin Khin Nyunt, were released in September and October, but most remained in detention without trial. Student opposition sources said that more than 300 students were arrested between June and September, when students staged small demonstrations to protest against the poor quality of education and the human rights situation.

Political prisoners were tortured and ill-treated, and held in conditions that amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Prisoners suffered from beatings and prolonged shackling, lack of proper medical care and an inadequate diet. Extremely harsh conditions in prison labour camps continued to be reported.

NLD leader and writer U Thein Tin died in custody in February. Opposition sources said that he had been tortured; the SPDC reported that he had died of cancer. In May opposition sources said that a political prisoner, Aung Kyaw Moe, had been beaten to death during a hunger strike in Tharawaddy Prison, where conditions remained particularly harsh. In August NLD member-of- parliament-elect U Saw Win also died of unknown causes in Tharawaddy Prison. According to official sources, in October NLD member U Aung Min died in hospital of lymph cancer after he was sent there from detention by the authorities.

The military continued to commit widespread human rights violations against ethnic minorities, including extrajudicial executions, torture, ill-treatment during forced labour and portering, and forcible relocations. Nang Pang, for example, a Shan woman from Murngpan township, died in January: she had been reportedly raped and kicked in the chest by SPDC soldiers in October 1997.

Forcible relocations, apparently carried out solely because of ethnic origin or perceived political beliefs, continued, particularly in the Shan State. In May and June four massacres of 103 Shan civilians by SPDC troops were reported in the central Shan State. Villagers were said to have been forcibly relocated and were searching for food outside their relocation areas when they were killed by troops thought to be searching for members of Shan armed opposition groups. Thousands of Karen villagers were reported to have been forcibly relocated during June and July in Pa'an District, the Kayin (Karen) State. Mon, Karen, Shan and Karenni people continued to be subjected to forced portering and other forms of forced labour amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. They were also detained solely on grounds of their ethnicity.

The Democratic Kayin Buddhist Organization (DKBO), a Karen armed opposition group allied with the SPDC, continued to attack refugees and Thai nationals in Thailand. In March the DKBO attacked three Karen refugee camps, killing five refugees and leaving thousands of them homeless. Later that month the KNU, which was fighting against the SPDC and the DKBO, launched an attack against a cinema in DKBO-controlled territory in the Kayin State, killing many Karen civilians.

Throughout the year Amnesty International continued to call for the release of prisoners of conscience and for an end to extrajudicial executions, torture and ill-treatment. In April Amnesty International published a report, Myanmar: Atrocities in the Shan State, detailing extrajudicial executions and forcible relocation and forced labour of the Shan ethnic minority. In August the organization launched a campaign highlighting the human rights situation in the 10 years since the crack-down on the pro-democracy movement.