Home

Archives

AHRC Site

RESPONSES TO THE EVENTS IN <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />BURMA<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

An Open Letter to the Ambassador for Myanmar in Sri Lanka
H E Tin Oo Lwin,       
Ambassador for Myanmar,
Your Excellency,   
As a friend and as one who has visited your great country, and conscious of the historical and cultural links between Myanmar and Sri Lanka, I am immensely saddened to learn of the recent events in Myanmar. As a religious leader, I have to add my voice to the many protests that are being made globally against the repressive and heavy–handed manner in which the Government has handled legitimate protests, particularly by the Buddhist monks. Several Buddhist monks have been killed, along with several civilians, and scores more injured across Myanmar. It is the inalienable right of people in a free country to dissent and express their protest against democratic restrictions and economic burdens heaped on them.
 
Your Government has been unjustly holding a democratically elected leader like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for many years. She has been a popular leader of non-violent resistance to the anti-democratic actions of your Government. The mass protests that are taking place in many cities, towns and villages like Yangon, Mandalay, Pegu, Sittwe and Pakokku now being led by Buddhist monks are due to the inhumane treatment meted out by the Government to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. You will no doubt appreciate that the moral stance taken by the Buddhist monks to boycott the military regime would not have been taken lightly.
 
As a fellow religious leader, I wish to express my solidarity with the commendable leadership provided by the Buddhist monks of Myanmar to this mass agitation. Your Excellency, please convey to your Government my grave concern at the brutal repression of legitimate protest. The protesters led by the monks need to be treated with respect and dignity and their dissent received in the right democratic spirit. I have no doubt that the crisis can only be diffused by the restoration of the democratic rights of the people and the recognition of the results of the democratic Election that chose Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to lead your country.
 
In view of the need to engage the people in this crisis, I am forwarding this to our sister Churches in Myanmar and elsewhere and to the media.
With Peace and Blessings.
Revd Duleep de Chickera, Bishop of Colombo 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rev. Mar Gay Gui,
Myanmar Council of Churches

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

We have been observing the recent events in your country where the people have been struggling under the repressive military regime. Amidst these struggles and atrocities, the courage and the will of the people have prevailed.
We have observed that religions in your country have played a positive role to transform and empower people to overcome the inhumane conditions to which they have been subjected to for a long period. The role of the Buddhist monks in this struggle is commendable. The liberative spirituality of Buddhism and other religions is a positive non-violent counter force to transform the principalities, powers and demonic forces which have overtaken your country for decades. We believe that in a world of violence, the counter force is not violence but spiritual power which says ‘no’ to violence and ‘yes’ to justice and peace.

We assure that you are in our constant prayers and we hope that in this moment of crisis, you will have the spiritual strength to endure all forms of suffering and be victorious by the power of God who is able to bring life out of death and order out of chaos.
Prawate Khid-arn, General Secretary

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

"Detained" must be treated as disappeared until located, identified

As of 30th  September, at least 700 monks and 500 other citizens have been taken away by security forces in every part of the country. They include prominent persons, such as comedian Par Par Lay in Mandalay, and staunch human rights defenders such as lawyer U Aye Myint in Pegu. They also include many members of the National League for Democracy, such as U Aye Ko and Daw Khin Whaing, who were arrested by police and council officials in Pegu at 9:30pm on September 27 and reportedly sent to the prison in Pyi. 

But the vast majority consists of ordinary persons who had joined the protests out of sheer frustration at the unbearable conditions in their country. Many have left their houses in the morning have simply not come home at night. For instance, according to the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), ten persons from the south side of New Dagon in greater Rangoon did not return home on September 28: Ko Htun Myaing (male, ward 26); Ma Khin Win Kyi (female, ward 17); Ko Tin Htoo (male, ward 17); Ma Yuyu Htay (female, ward 17); U Tin Ohn (male, ward 55); Ma Cho (female, ward 70); Hmat Kyi (male, ward 70); Ma Aye Mya Mya Htun (a.k.a. Ma Aye Mun, female, ward 20); Ma May Thezin (female, ward 20); Ma Hla Kyi Htay (female, ward 20). Their families don't know if they are alive or dead, or where they may be. They have simply disappeared.

None of these persons have been taken into custody through the use of arrest warrants or any other legal procedures, nor have they been produced in any courts. The relatives have not been informed of their whereabouts. Personnel from the International Committee of the Red Cross are reportedly attempting to get accurate information on casualties and other incidents yesterday around Rangoon; however, as they are denied access to detention centres there is no independent agency able to verify numbers, names and locations of detained persons, let alone establish how many may have been tortured or killed, or be at risk of torture or killing.

The Asian Human Rights Commission is not aware of any formal proclamation of martial law or emergency regulations in Burma that would allow the government to depart from the ordinary standards of law and procedure that exist in Burma. And under any circumstances, until the authorities who have taken these persons into custody can reveal the whereabouts and current conditions of each and every one of them, and prove it by giving their families, lawyers and members of the ICRC access, they must be treated as forcibly disappeared persons under the standards of international law.

The Asian Human Rights Commission calls for the international community--and in particular the UN Human Rights Council through its special session on Burma this coming week--to demand that the government of Burma immediately:

1. Reveal in full the whereabouts and other details of all detained persons and all those who have died;

2. Show evidence of under what laws and legal procedures all persons have been arrested and are being held;

3. Bring all detained persons before courts of law within 24 hours as required by section 61 of the Criminal Procedure Code;

4. Give access to family members, lawyers and the ICRC;

5. Conduct judicial inquests into the deaths of all persons fired upon or assaulted by security forces;

5. Permit access to the country by key United Nations experts, including the Special Rapporteurs on Myanmar, extrajudicial killings and torture, and members of the Working Groups on arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances; and,