BURMA: The Junta's Another Round of Dirty Game upon Amnesty International.
The SPDC acknowledged the continued detention of 23 people arrested on Black Fridayand imprisonment of 52 persons after 30 May. But, number of detainees in Dapeyin ambush is 118, and after the ambush detained 197 people.

Zin Linn

Burma's military junta on 23 December 2003 lashed out at London based rights watchdog Amnesty International's recent negative assessment of conditions in the military-ruled country and criticised it ought to seek common ground in improving human rights.

Amnesty ended a ''17-day Official Mission to Burma'', its second visit of the year, on 19 December and issued a statement at a press conference in Bangkok on 22 December, outlining a range of serious concerns substantiated during the visit, and called on the Burmese military rulers to take urgent steps to improve the human rights situation, which has deteriorated significantly including an upsurge in detention of political prisoners since the violent Black Friday attack on democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD).

The Burmese military regime said in its statement faxed to the media that it regretted about the recent negative statement issued by the Amnesty International asserting that the regime was discouraged with the political process in the country. It also said that Amnesty's criticism of the democracy situation in the country comes at the time when many nations around the world including the secretary-general of the United Nations are hailing the junta's efforts at 7-steps national reconciliation.

“The authorities have told us to be patient, and that change may come soon. But these assurances ring hollow in the face of continuing repression. We will judge progress on human rights in Myanmar by concrete improvements on the ground. Fine word, and vague promises for the future without any timetable for change carry little weight.” Amnesty International said. The two-member team, which spent 17 days in the country, was not allowed to meet Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.

"We are waiting for action to match the fine words," said Catherine Baber, deputy programme director of Amnesty's Asia-Pacific region.

According to the AI Mission, the team obtained clarification about the legal status of named individuals detained on or after the 30 May. The SPDC acknowledged the continued detention of 23 people (not including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi) arrested on that day and the detention or imprisonment of 52 persons after 30 May. But the regime failed to give the real number of total detainees who were arrested during the Dapeyin premeditated ambush.

Due to some reliable sources, the SPDC's number of detainees on May 30 and after is in conflict with the figures of the local analysts. Number of detainees in Dapeyin ambush is 118 in total by names. After the ambush there was a manhunt and detained 197 people. Although it was an imperfect detainee-list, there was a serious difference of number with the SPDC's acknowledgement.

Up to the date, there were altogether released a hundred people from the Dapeyin attack. That means the real number in prison is still 210 who were arrested in consequence of Dapeyin incident, say the local analysts on the matter. According to a news source in Rangoon, there are around 1560 political prisoners in Burma's 39 prisons.

Burmese opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had already said that there was no sign in evidence to believe the military junta was interested in democratic reforms. In her strongest criticism upon the junta since her release from house arrest on 6 May in 2002, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said she had been harassed repeatedly by officials on her visits to supporters in states and divisions of the country.

''They don't want change, but change is inevitable,'' Daw Aung San Suu Kyi pointed out during press conference at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD).
''If the SPDC is truly interested in the welfare of this country, they should cooperate with the NLD. I'd like to ask why the SPDC doesn't contact the NLD,'' criticized the Nobel laureate.

In the past 14 years since the democracy uprising in 1988, little progress has been made in the areas of democracy and human rights in Burma. The U.N. Special Rapporteur Prof. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro also criticised Burma's political reforms are going simply too slowly. He also made a strong suggestion to speed up change, all political prisoners must be freed.
"I think there is no excuse to delay the unconditional and immediate release of political prisoners. It's very difficult to have a political dialogue - national reconciliation - with hundreds of political prisoners behind bars. It's necessary that the government take some bold steps to release these prisoners," Mr. Pinheiro spoke to journalists in Bangkok on 26 March 2003 after his visit to Burma.
Currently, the SPDC turned a deaf ear to the issue of political prisoners and a political dialogue with the oppositions as well. In various prisons, there's a lot of evidence that political prisoners got tortures more than criminal offenders. For instance, they appear to be often deliberately sent to remote prisons that makes family visits very difficult or impossible. On the contrary, sending to remote areas affects prisoners' conditions severely for they depend on family support to sustain themselves in prison. Approximately a hundred political prisoners passed away in the junta's jail.
In such situation, Amnesty International urges the authorities to release all prisoners of conscience immediately and unconditionally. And also urges to stop the use of repressive legislation to criminalize freedom of expression and peaceful association.

At a 12-nation meeting in Bangkok on 15 December 2003, the junta's Foreign Minister Win Aung promised his regime would hold a national convention to write a new constitution in 2004 as the first step in a seven-point democracy "road map". But, Burmese people have numerous examples that the military regime used to play trickery games and never keeps its words. Without knowing the junta's wickedness, some leaders of neighbouring countries guarantee on behalf of the Burmese generals that they are sincerely heading for a democratic nation. But it's in vain for the people of Burma who were enslaved over forty years under the military.

Actually, there could be no genuine initiation of democratization together with national reconciliation in Burma while the military junta is stubbornly keeping political prisoners including the Nobel Laureate and suppressing basic and inborn human rights throughout the country. The world body should deeply consider carrying out its decision effectively upon Burma's political crisis as an example of recognizing the voters' desire.