BurmaNet News, May 14, 2009

[Editor]

May 14, 2009, Issue #3710


QUOTE OF THE DAY
"The Burmese regime is clearly intent on finding any pretext, no matter
how tenuous, to extend [Aung San Suu Kyi’s] unlawful detention. The real
injustice, the real illegality, is that she is still detained in the first
place. If the 2010 elections are to have any semblance of credibility, she
and all political prisoners must be freed to participate. Only then will
Burma be set on the road to real democracy, stability and prosperity," –
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

INSIDE BURMA
Mizzima News: Junta charges Nobel Peace Laureate under section 22
BBC News: Inside Burma's Insein prison
Guardian (UK): Aung San Suu Kyi intruder is Mormon and Vietnam vet
SHAN: Junta training militias in another name

BUSINESS / TRADE
Mizzima News: Bangladesh Foreign Minister to visit Burma

REGIONAL
AFP: Protests in Japan as Myanmar's Suu Kyi charged

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: U.N.'s Ban "gravely concerned" for Myanmar's Suu Kyi
Irrawaddy: Govts, exiles call for Suu Kyi's release
Sydney Morning Herald: Aussie firm embarrassed by Burma link

OPINION / OTHER
Guardian (UK): Burma's junta still fears Suu Kyi – Simon Tisdall
Irrawaddy: Asean, UN: Silent partners in crime? – Editorial
Daily Telegraph (UK): I went to prison for telling a lie. In Burma, people
are in prison for telling the truth – Jonathan Aitken

PRESS RELEASE
OHCHR: UN expert on Myanmar calls for release of Aung San Suu Kyi
Freedom Now: Freedom Now condemns Burmese junta’s pretextual charge
against Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi



____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 14, Mizzima News
Junta charges Nobel Peace Laureate under section 22

Burma’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on Thursday was charged
under section 22 of the country's penal code, for protecting a criminal
and disturbing the stability of the state, and is currently being detained
in Rangoon’s Insein Prison.

If found guilty under the charge, she could be sentenced to a prison term
of three to five years, fined 5,000 kyats ($US 5) or incur both penalties.

Additionally, Khin Khin Win and her daughter, who have been living with
Aung San Suu Kyi and tending to her daily needs, were charged under
section 22/109 of the penal code, which is concerned with supporting a
criminal act against the stability of the state.

Further, John William Yettaw, who swam across Inya Lake and entered Aung
San Suu Kyi’s residence, was also charged under section 22/109 of penal
code in conjunction with charges under the Immigration and Rangoon
Municipal Acts.

Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, as per the court’s remand, is being
held in a special cell inside Insein Prison.

The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi and the other three accused will be
conducted at the Rangoon Western District Court in Insein Prison, and will
be presided over by Justice Thawng Nyunt in the presence of Advisor to the
Justice Nyi Nyi Soe and District Legal Advisor Myint Kyaing.

____________________________________

May 14, BBC News
Inside Burma's Insein prison

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being held in the
notorious Insein jail in Rangoon, after being charged with violating the
terms of her house arrest.

Human rights campaigners say incarceration at the top security prison,
which is known as the "darkest hell-hole in Burma", could be tantamount to
a death sentence - especially as the 63-year-old's health is known to be
fragile.

Bo Kyi, now joint secretary of Assistance Association for Political
Prisoners (Burma), has first-hand experience of life in Insein jail.

He was jailed for more than seven years for political dissent, and was
kept in solitary confinement for more than a year, in a concrete cell that
was about 8ft by 12ft (2.5m by 3.5m).

There was no toilet in the cell - just a bucket filled with urine and
faeces. He slept on a mat on the floor.

Mr Kyi says he was tortured and beaten by the prison guards. He was
shackled in heavy chains, with a metal bar between his legs, which made it
difficult to walk.

Every morning for about two weeks, he says he was made to "exercise" -
forced to adopt awkward positions and if he failed he was brutally beaten.

During this time he was not allowed to shower and was forced to sleep on
bare concrete.

Disease rife

He was later moved from isolation and shared an overcrowded cell with four
other political prisoners.

He says the prison has the capacity to house 5,000-6,000 prisoners. He
estimates there are currently some 10,000 in detention.

Once a week they were able to wash their clothes. But during the stifling
summers he said there was no water to bathe.

With only three prison doctors to treat 10,000 inmates, he says diseases
such as tuberculosis, scabies and dysentery were rife. Mental illness was
also widespread.

Bo Kyi says Aung San Suu Kyi is most likely being held in a special
compound built for her detention in 2003, which has a wooden bed and a
toilet.

Although the conditions there are probably not as bad as in the rest of
the prison, he says he is still extremely concerned for her well-being.

'Totally unacceptable'

Ms Suu Kyi has spent more than 11 of the past 19 years in some form of
detention under Burma's military government.

She was jailed at Insein prison in May 2003, after clashes between
opposition activists and supporters of the regime.

Her latest period of house arrest was extended last year - a move which
analysts say is illegal even under the junta's own rules. It is due to
expire on 27 May.

Human rights activist Debbie Stothard, from the pressure group
Altsean-Burma, has urged the international community to intervene in
trying to secure Ms Suu Kyi's release.

"Many people have died when they have been detained in Insein, that's a
proven fact.

"The fact that Aung San Suu Kyi... now might be subject to a
life-threatening detention condition - it's totally unacceptable," she
said.

"It's totally unjust and it's time that Asean, China and the rest of the
international community finally put their foot down."

Many analysts believe that pro-democracy leader's arrest is a pretext by
the military regime to keep her detained until elections expected in 2010.

____________________________________

May 14, Guardian (UK)
Aung San Suu Kyi intruder is Mormon and Vietnam vet

The American intruder described by one member of Aung San Suu Kyi's staff
as "a nutty fellow" was John Yettaw, 53, a Mormon who reportedly told
Burmese exiles in Thailand he was writing a "faith-based" book on heroism.

Before he set out, he photographed himself wearing homemade flippers,
which he used along with lashed-together plastic containers as flotation
aids, to make the mile-long swim across Inya lake.

He was identified by US media as a Vietnam veteran - he would have been 19
at the end of the war in 1975 - and a Mormon who said he had come to her
house to pray with her.

The Washington Post said little was known about Yettaw but reported the
official Burmese government newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, which
gave his home as Falcon, Missouri, and said he had arrived in Burma on a
tourist visa on 2 May.

Among possessions confiscated by the authorities were a black flashlight,
folding pliers, a camera and Burmese and US currency.

A Burmese opposition magazine, Irrawaddy, reported that he met with exiles
in Thailand before entering Burma and told them of his plans to write a
book.

Time traced a John W Yettaw residing in the Ozarks whose son, also
described as a Mormon, died two years ago.

____________________________________

May 14, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta training militias in another name – Khun Aung Kham

Local authorities in Mong Ko village tract, Tachilek Township, Eastern
Shan State, opposite Maesai, are ordering villagers to serve either in the
fire brigade or in the Union Solidarity and Development Association
(USDA), but were actually giving militia training to those who choose to
join fire brigades, according to sources from border.

“The chairman of our village track said the order came from above. One
person per house has to join either the fire brigade or USDA. Now they are
giving training in the football field of Mong Ko village tract,” said a 40
year old woman.

The first batch of about 50 villagers has been trained and they are now
training the second batch, according to local villagers.

The formation of villagers into fire fighters or USDA members is a new
strategy in order to secure more support for their election, said Kya
Bolong, Chairman of LaHu Democratic Union (LDU).

“They are persuading people by giving them incentives such as issuing
Identity cards at cheap price if they join the USDA. Because most of the
villagers have no ID cards, many are interested in joining it,” he added.

There are 56 villages in Mong Ko village tract, and most of villagers are
Shan and Lahu. The area of Mong Ko tract stretches from the outskirts of
Tachilek Township to the outskirts of Talerh Township, 29 miles farther
north.

Similarly, people in Nam Kham Township, Northern Shan State, are
undergoing militia trainings after being told to join fine brigades. So
far, Junta authorities have completed three batches.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 14, Mizzima News
Bangladesh Foreign Minister to visit Burma – Moe Thu

Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Ms. Dipu Moni will arrive in Burma Thursday
evening for a four day goodwill visit to promote the bilateral
relationship between the two countries, according to a source close to the
diplomatic mission.

During her four day trip, scheduled from May 14th to 17th, Ms. Dipu Moni
will meet with Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein, Foreign Minister Nyan
Win and other ministers, the source added.

The two neighbors will discuss the promotion of bilateral relations and
the problems regarding border issues such as human trafficking and the
smuggling of drugs and arms.

“They will discuss the fencing along the border by the Myanmar [Burma]
government,” the source said, referring the ongoing construction by Burma
of a security fence on its side of the shared border.

Last year the navies from the two countries partook in a military standoff
in the Bay of Bengal concerning a water territory dispute related to the
exploration of offshore gas reserves by the Daewoo International
Corporation.

The source said the two sides will also discuss cooperation in the
agricultural and hydropower sectors.

____________________________________
REGIONAL

May 14, Agence France Presse
Protests in Japan as Myanmar's Suu Kyi charged

Dozens of Myanmar protesters rallied Thursday in Japan after the Southeast
Asian country's military junta charged pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi
with breaching the terms of her house arrest.

"Free Suu Kyi!" chanted more than 60 expatriates from Myanmar in front of
the country's embassy in Tokyo, holding banners that read: "The military
junta should stop oppression with its unfair trial!"

Myanmar's regime Thursday charged pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi with
breaching the terms of her house arrest and moved her to a house at a
prison after a US man swam across a lake and hid inside her home, her
lawyer said.

Expatriates are also lobbying Japanese lawmakers to issue a statement
calling for the release of all political prisoners in the former Burma,
said Min Nyo, who heads an activist exile group.

"We are also seeking truly democratic elections at home, joined by all
political parties, after reconciliation among all the people," he told
AFP.

Japan, the top donor to Myanmar among the OECD's major economies, in 2003
suspended most assistance other than emergency aid and some training funds
to Myanmar.

It further cut its aid after the regime cracked down on pro-democracy
demonstrations in 2007.

But Japan refuses to join its Western allies in slapping punishing
sanctions on Myanmar. China, which often spars with Japan for influence,
is Myanmar's main political and commercial partner.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 14, Reuters
U.N.'s Ban "gravely concerned" for Myanmar's Suu Kyi

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed "grave concern" on Thursday
over reports that Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was charged
with violating her house arrest and could face new jail time.

"The Secretary-General is gravely concerned about the news that Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi has been moved to the Insein Prison to face criminal charges,"
U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters.

She said Ban believes Suu Kyi "is an essential partner for dialogue in
Myanmar's national reconciliation and calls on the government not to take
any further action that could undermine this important process."

Ban is convinced that Suu Kyi and all others in the country formerly known
as Burma "who have a contribution to make to the future of their country"
should be free to do so, Okabe said.

Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said she faces up
to five years in jail after an American intruder sneaked into her lakeside
home.

Opposition activists denounced her trial, set to begin on Monday, as a
ploy by the country's junta to keep Suu Kyi, 63, sidelined ahead of
elections in 2010.

The NLD, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied
power by the military, "strongly condemned" the new charges two weeks
before her latest six-year detention is due to expire on May 27.

The Nobel Peace laureate has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention,
most of it held virtually incommunicado at her home, her telephone line
cut, mail intercepted and visitors restricted.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Simon Gardner)

____________________________________

May 14, Irrawaddy
Govts, exiles call for Suu Kyi's release

The British prime minister, the Australian government and its opposition
party joined the chorus of calls from Burmese activist groups around the
world on Thursday for the immediate release of Burma’s pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“I am deeply disturbed that Aung San Suu Kyi may be charged with breaching
the terms of her detention,” said British premier Gordon Brown on
Thursday. “The Burmese regime is clearly intent on finding any pretext, no
matter how tenuous, to extend her unlawful detention.”

Earlier, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith had addressed Australia’s
parliament. "It is Australia's longstanding position—shared by governments
of both political persuasions—that she [Suu Kyi] should be released
immediately and unconditionally and I repeat that today,” he said.

According to the Australian press, opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman
Julie Bishop told parliament that the Burmese military junta had ignored
the will of the majority of its people.

"The world must engage in greater levels of diplomacy and other actions to
ensure Aung San Suu Kyi is free, and that freedom and democracy is
returned to the people of Burma," she said.

Meanwhile on Thursday, in Rangoon, Suu Kyi’s party, the NLD, released a
press statement saying that Suu Kyi was “devout in her search of national
reconciliation and was the one person who could effect political reform
through dialogue and compromise.”

Suu Kyi was charged with breaching the conditions of her house arrest
relating to an incident last week when an American man— John William
Yettaw, 54, from Missouri—swam across Inya Lake and entered her house.

Suu Kyi, 63, has spent over 13 of the past 20 years in detention for
leading the pro-democracy movement in Burma. Her latest term under house
arrest is due to expire at the end of this month and opposition activists
say the junta is looking for a legal pretext to keep her detained.

“We unequivocally condemn this attempt by the junta to cloak its continued
detention of Suu Kyi in a veil of legitimacy,” Jared Genser, her US-based
legal counsel, said on Thursday before the court hearing.

On March, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared that they
found Suu Kyi's current detention violates international and Burmese law.

The Washington-based National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma—
which describes itself as the country's government-in-exile—also condemned
the NLD leader’s arrest. The group's prime minister, Dr Sein Win, who is a
cousin of Suu Kyi, said, "It is nothing more than a political ploy to
hoodwink the international community so that they can keep Daw Aung San
Suu Kyi under lock and key while the military maneuvers its way to
election victory in 2010."

Meanwhile, a London-based advocacy group, Burma Campaign UK, called for an
intense diplomatic effort to secure the release of Suu Kyi after she was
taken into custody from her lakeside home on Thursday morning to a guest
house inside the compound of Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison.

“The United Nations and Asean must dispatch envoys to Burma to demand the
immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all Burma’s political
prisoners,” said Zoya Phan, the international coordinator at Burma
Campaign UK, adding that she also called on the British government, the EU
and the US to use their influence to ensure the UN sends an envoy to
Burma.

“Burma’s generals will use any excuse to keep Aung San Suu Kyi detained.
If strong action isn’t taken, Aung San Suu Kyi could face the rest of her
life in jail,” she said in a statement on Thursday.

Suu Kyi was recently reportedly to be suffering from low blood pressure
and dehydration, and had difficulty eating. Her health reportedly improved
this week after a visit from a doctor who administered an intravenous
drip. However, the NLD has called for her to receive regular medical
checkups.

The US State Department and the EU also voiced their concerns over the
health of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

____________________________________

May 14, Sydney Morning Herald
Aussie firm embarrassed by Burma link

A top Australian engineering company has been embarrassed by revelations
that one of its subsidiaries has been doing business with a shadowy
conglomerate closely tied to Burma's repressive military regime.

Downer EDI this month cancelled Singapore-based subsidiary CPG's contract
with a company believed to be a subsidiary of Burmese conglomerate Asia
World.

CPG was contracted to help design a new airport, which Asia World is to
build, in Naypyidaw, Burma's remote new capital city.

Asia World has strong links to the ruling regime and at least two of its
wealthy executives - founder Lo Hsing Han and his son, managing director
Tun Myint Naing, also known as Steven Law - are blacklisted by Australian
and US authorities.

Under federal government sanctions, transactions involving the transfer of
funds or payments to the two men, along with 461 other Burmese figures, is
strictly prohibited without the specific approval of the Reserve Bank of
Australia (RBA).

Downer EDI, based in Sydney, said it knew nothing of the contract until it
was contacted by an investigative reporter from the Asia Sentinel online
magazine.

Downer EDI's corporate affairs manager Maryanne Graham said the company
cancelled the contract because it contravened the company's stated policy
of sustaining a "zero-harm environment".

"We take zero harm very seriously and while not insinuating anything
against our direct client in Singapore, we believe this action to be in
keeping with the intent of our policy," she told the Sentinel.

US authorities believe Lo Hsing Han is also one of the world's key heroin
traffickers, dating back to the early 1970s.

"Steven Law joined his father's drug empire in the 1990s and has since
become one of the wealthiest individuals in Burma," a 2008 US Treasury
Department press release said.

Downer EDI failed to respond to AAP's repeated requests for more
information, or for comment. Comment was also being sought from the RBA.

Human rights groups have accused the Burmese regime of using slave labor
to build its new capital, in a remote region in the centre of the country.

____________________________________
OPINION / OTHER

May 14, Guardian (UK)
Burma's junta still fears Suu Kyi – Simon Tisdall

The levelling of new charges against Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's elected
leader and pro-democracy champion, comes less than two weeks before she
was due to be released from house arrest. This is no coincidence.

Even though Suu Kyi has been in one form of detention or another for 13 of
the past 19 years, the military junta led by General Than Shwe still fears
her as a living symbol of the country's lost liberty.

In recent weeks there have been signs that the generals were casting
around for a pretext for keeping her locked up. One was the detention of
her personal doctor, Tin Myo Win, who has now been charged with
"encouraging a violation of the law".

Members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy say the charges against
their leader, which carry up to five years in jail, have been trumped up
in a transparent bid to ensure that she can play no part in next year's
national elections.

The NLD has rejected both Burma's new constitution, implemented after a
massively manipulated referendum last year, and the junta's "road map" to
supposedly democratic rule.

Despite constant, harsh repression, including the holding of 2,000
political prisoners, Suu Kyi and her party retain sufficient influence to
wreck the general's carefully laid plans. That's a powerful reason to keep
on trying to discredit and silence her.
According to Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, the
unannounced, uninvited arrival at her compound of a lone American, which
led to her arrest for allegedly breaking the conditions of her house
arrest, was a "godsend" for the junta.

The man was probably acting alone, he said, although it was not impossible
that the incident had been fabricated by the authorities in order to
compromise Suu Kyi.

Yet whatever the genesis of the incident, Farmaner said the generals would
probably have found some sort of pretext to re-arrest her between now and
her release date of 27 May.

Farmaner said the regime was anxious to rebut a recent finding by the UN
that Suu Kyi was being held illegally and in breach of both Burmese and
international law. By putting her on trial again (and almost certainly
finding her guilty), they were, by their own perverse logic, legitimising
the position.

Suu Kyi, who has now been jailed pending a scheduled trial on 18 May , has
suffered from poor health in recent years, although the nature of her
illness has not been disclosed. Latest reports say she has been making a
recovery after complaining of exhaustion.

But her health overall is still said to be fragile. "The last thing she
needs is the appalling conditions inside one of the worst prisons in Asia.
It is very worrying," Farmaner said.

Judging by past performance, little practical help for Suu Kyi will be
forthcoming from the international community. Ibrahim Gambari, a former
Nigerian foreign minister who was appointed UN special envoy to Burma in
2006, is a figure of no account.

During his most recent visits, Than Shwe and other top regime figures
declined to meet him. But Gambari's endorsement of the new constitution
and the generals' plans for elections in 2010 has also discredited him
with the opposition. "Gambari has lost the confidence of both sides. He is
a lame duck envoy," Farmaner said.

The US and the EU maintain limited sanctions against Burma. But stronger
action via the UN security council has been continuously blocked by China,
which has large trade and resource interests at stake. While issuing
statements of concern from time to time, the EU has not actively sought to
change the junta's behaviour.

After coming to office in January, the Obama administration said it was
reviewing policy towards Burma. Some officials suggested a less
confrontational approach might reap dividends.

But the junta's continuing, egregious human rights abuses, its neglect of
people displaced by last year's Cyclone Nargis, its sanctioning of
narcotics and people trafficking, and its utter disdain for international
opinion have stifled such hopes.

The US is expected to maintain its tough line while taking a more
proactive diplomatic approach to try and engage the generals. That may
include the appointment of a special US envoy.

After the desperate developments of the past few hours, that sort of
initiative – in fact, any sort of initiative – is more badly needed than
ever.
____________________________________

May 14, Irrawaddy
Asean, UN: Silent partners in crime? – Editorial

Aung San Suu Kyi, now under arrest in Insein Prison in Rangoon, will face
politically motivated charges against her, her personal physician and two
caretakers in her home in a special prison court on Monday.

Suu Kyi, 63, and her two female caretakers were arrested at her lakeside
home on Thursday, following an American citizen’s overnight intrusion into
her home last week.

Suu Kyi and four others involved in the bizarre incident will be tried for
violating Burma’s security laws.

Her personal physician was arrested last week, along with the American
intruder, John William Yettaw, 53.

Early last week, the US government urged the Burmese government to grant
the country’s ailing Nobel Peace Prize laureate immediate access to proper
medical care, since she was ill last week.

America and the European Union have made urgent calls for Suu Kyi’s
release from house arrest and have asked the regime to give her proper
medical care.

But such calls are falling on deaf ears. The authorities have charged her
and the others, and Suu Kyi will likely be kept under house arrest or in
prison for many years to come.

This is a dark moment for democracy in Burma. Shamelessly, there has been
a lack of proper expressions of outrage by many governments in Asia,
especially members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Likewise
at this provocative moment, the United Nations must take more aggressive
actions against Burma’s repressive rulers.

Where is the UN’s special Burma envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who should be
leading a forceful UN charge to counter the military regime’s manipulation
of these unfortunate events that have led to the charges against Suu Kyi,
which could lead to a maximum of five years in prison?

Where is Surin Pitsuwan, Asean’s leader? As a former foreign minister of
Thailand, he often criticized the junta’s abysmal human rights record. Now
Asean has a human rights charter. Wouldn’t it be proper for Asean to
exercise its human rights principles at this sad moment in Burma’s history
by clearly and forcefully condemning Burma in the strongest possible
language?

Where is Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, who has said Thailand would
have “an ethical foreign policy”?

Suu Kyi will be standing in a kangaroo court on Monday. The generals have
acted with impunity, knowing that previous protests against their abuses
and acts of negligence have quickly faded away.

All nations should speak out now—with force. Silence and mild expressions
of concern only send a signal of business as usual to the autocratic
rulers of Burma.

____________________________________

May 14, Daily Telegraph (UK)
I went to prison for telling a lie. In Burma, people are in prison for
telling the truth – Jonathan Aitken

Burma’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has suffered a further travesty
of justice, on top of the 13 years of house arrest she has already
endured. Later this month her current period of detention expires, but now
she has been moved to the notorious Insein Prison to stand trial on new
charges. Even before today, her detention - according to the United
Nations - violates both international and Burmese law, and she remains the
world’s only jailed Nobel Laureate. The brutal junta ruling Burma even
denied her medical treatment, and arrested her personal doctor. She has
committed no crime – indeed, it is the regime that is criminal.

But Aung San Suu Kyi is simply the most visible of Burma’s prisoners of
conscience. At least 2,100 dissidents remain in jail, in conditions far
more brutal than her house arrest. A recent report, Burma’s Prisons and
Labour Camps: Silent Killing Fields, released by the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), details systematic and
horrific torture, denial of medical treatment and refusal of visits from
family. Food is inedible and exercise severely restricted. At least 127
are in poor health, and 19 urgently need medical care. Since 1988, at
least 139 political prisoners have died in jail.

Some of the most recent inmates have been given sentences of staggering
absurdity, for simply expressing an opinion, and jailed in remote
locations hundreds of miles from relatives. Elected Shan Member of
Parliament Khun Tun Oo was jailed for 93 years in 2005. Leading activist
Min Ko Naing, jailed for 65 years last year, is losing his eyesight. Ko Ko
Gyi, serving the same sentence, has liver problems. Comedian Zarganar,
serving 35 years for organising relief for the victims of Cyclone Nargis,
also has liver and heart disease. A further 20 civilians who volunteered
to help in the post-Cyclone disaster situation have been jailed for their
efforts.

And it is not only those in jail who are prisoners. Burma’s ruling
military junta has held the entire nation captive for almost fifty years.
It ranks alongside North Korea, Sudan and Zimbabwe in the inhumanity
stakes. The regime’s callousness was on full display a year ago, when
after Cyclone Nargis, the worst natural disaster in years, it initially
refused international aid and denied access to aid workers. Over 140,000
people died, with more than 2.5 million left homeless.

As if this catalogue of horrors was not enough, the regime is carrying out
a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Karen, Karenni and Shan peoples
in eastern Burma. More than 3,300 villages have been destroyed and a
million people driven from their homes into hiding, without food, medicine
or shelter. Civilians, including women and children, are shot at
point-blank range. Rape is used as a weapon of war, forced labour is
widespread and the use of human minesweepers common. It has the highest
number of forcibly conscripted child soldiers in the world. Burma has
become Asia’s Darfur, but without the world’s cameras.

Even more forgotten still are the ethnic groups in northern and western
Burma. The Muslim Rohingyas are denied citizenship despite living in Burma
for generations. The Chin are a majority Christian population, and they
are targeted for their faith. Christians are forced to tear down crosses
and build Buddhist pagodas in their place. Forced conversion is common.
The regime misuses religion as a political tool, and perverts Buddhism for
its own purposes.

For too long, Burma’s plight has been neglected. The time has come to say
enough is enough. It is time for the UN to invoke its much-flaunted
Responsibility to Protect mechanism, to impose an arms embargo on the
regime and establish a commission of inquiry to investigate crimes against
humanity.

As an immediate step, the UN Secretary-General must hear the appeals of
hundreds of thousands of people around the world who have signed a
petition calling on him to make the release of political prisoners in
Burma a top priority. The UN should send a senior envoy immediately to
Burma, to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political
prisoners and access to medical care. As Aung San Suu Kyi has said, “until
all of our political prisoners are free, none of us can say that Burma is
now truly on the road towards democratic change.”

In 1997, I went to prison for very different reasons. I was convicted of
perjury. I had committed a crime, and paid the price. Since then, I have
devoted my time to two causes – prison reform and international human
rights. I know that I went to prison for telling a lie. It is for that
reason that I cannot stay silent when in Burma, over 2,000 people are in
prison for telling the truth.

Jonathan Aitken is a former Cabinet minister, and Honorary President of
the international human rights organisation Christian Solidarity Worldwide
(CSW). CSW has recently launched a new online campaign,
www.changeforburma.org

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

May 14, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
UN expert on Myanmar calls for release of Aung San Suu Kyi

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on situation of human rights in
Myanmar, Tomás Ojea Quintana, expressed serious concern Thursday regarding
the unlawful detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, General Secretary of the
National League for Democracy (NLD), and called for her unconditional
release.

According to information received by Ojea Quintana, Aung San Suu Kyi and
two aides were escorted this morning by security forces to Insein prison. 
They appeared before a special court and were charged under article 22 of
the State Protection law.  Their trial has been scheduled for 18 May 2009.
They are currently detained in the Insein compound.

The new charges are said to be in connection with the recent intrusion of
an American citizen into the home of Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under
house arrest for the past six years. “Since her house is well guarded by
security forces, the responsibility for preventing such intrusions, and
alerting the authorities, lies with the security forces and not with Aung
San Suu Kyi and her aides,” Ojea Quintana said.

Ojea Quintana said that Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention has been in
contravention of Articles 9, 10 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, as well as Myanmar’s own State Protection Law of 1975 under
which she was initially charged in 2003, which allows for a maximum of
five years’ detention – meaning she should have been released a year ago.

“I call on the Government of Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi and her
aides unconditionally,” Ojea Quintana said. He added that in order to
ensure national reconciliation and democratic transition, to which the
Myanmar leadership has committed itself, all 2156 prisoners of conscience
currently detained by the authorities should be released before the 2010
elections.

For more information or interview requests, please call + 41 22 928 9214

____________________________________

May 14, Freedom Now
Freedom Now condemns Burmese junta’s pretextual charge against Nobel Peace
Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi

Freedom Now has confirmed the news that Burmese democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi has been ordered to report to court tomorrow morning at 9 am
Rangoon time to face charges relating to the breaking into her compound of
the U.S. citizen who swam across Inya Lake.

This pretextual charge comes, not coincidentally, as Ms. Suu Kyi
approaches the six-year anniversary of her detention under house arrest on
May 27, 2009.

Although the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention ruled in Opinion No.
46/2008 that Ms. Suu Kyi’s detention was a clear violation of Burmese and
international law -- Burma’s State Protection Law 1975 prohibits house
arrest beyond a period of five years -- the junta has argued publicly that
the maximum period for detention is six years. Under its analysis,
therefore, the junta should have been scheduled to release her on May 27,
2009.

According to her Burmese lawyer U Kyi Win, authorities claim the incident
to be a breach of Ms. Suu Kyi’s house arrest conditions, where she is
prohibited from inviting visitors to her home. But Ms. Suu Kyi had no idea
that he was coming and even encouraged him to leave. “Daw Suu told him to
go back, but he didn’t,” said U Kyi Win. “He said he was so tired and
wanted to rest, but she pleaded with him. Then he slept overnight on the
ground floor,” he added. Should she be convicted of this offense, she is
potentially subject to three additional years of imprisonment under
Article 22 of the State Protection Law.

“We unequivocally condemn this transparent attempt by the Burmese junta
tocloak its ongoing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi in a veil of
legitimacy,” said Jared Genser, lead international counsel for Ms. Suu
Kyi. “Their excuse for her detention was about to expire and it is crystal
clear that this charge is patently ridiculous.”

This news comes days after Ms. Suu Kyi began recovering from health
problems, including dehydration and low blood pressure Freedom Now was
retained in mid-2006 by a member of Ms. Suu Kyi’s family to serve as her
international counsel.

Contact: Jared Genser, +1 (202) 320-4135