In June 2008 after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Burma delta, a group of homeless residents went to request assistance from offices of international agencies in Rangoon. At that time, two reporters for local news journals went along with them. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in this appeal is bringing you details of the subsequent arrest of the journalists along with the residents, and imprisonment of the two journalists on trumped-up charges. They are among a number of persons sentenced because they tried to help cyclone victims.

CASE DETAILS:

On 10 June 2008 a group of women and children came to the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Rangoon to request assistance for rebuilding their houses because their group of 25 families had been homeless and staying at a religious building in the outer suburban area of the city since Cyclone Nargis hit over a month before. Two young journalists, Ma Eint Khaing Oo working for Ecovision journal and Kyaw Kyaw Thant, a freelancer with Weekly Eleven, had arranged to go with them.

After they had gone to the ICRC, the police and members of a government-organized vigilante organisation detained the family members and journalists nearby the UNDP office before they could go inside. A group of men came up to them in plain clothes and without saying who they were, pushed them into waiting vehicles and drove them away. They released the family members to the custody of local council officials after 12 days in exchange for forcing them to testify that the two journalists brought them in order to stir up trouble and create animosity towards the government by saying that they had not received assistance and needed help from international groups.

In a closed court the two journalists denied the charges against them. Eint Khaing Oo said that she had gone around cyclone-affected areas in the vicinity of her house, where over 300 people had been left homeless, to see what she could do to help. She had worked together with local Red Cross personnel and had then discussed with them to go with a group of cyclone-affected people to try to get help from ICRC. A member of the local Red Cross had gone with them to the ICRC office and had met with the staff there to request assistance. He had also gone with them to the UN office to see if they could also get some assistance for their projects, and had given money for the cost of transport, but had left when they found the office closed. At no time had she done anything or said anything against the state, she said.

Kyaw Kyaw Thant said that he had gone to the affected area also to collect news about what was going on and to give food to the homeless and needy out of his own pocket, like thousands of other people in Rangoon did at that time. He also gave money to local Red Cross personnel for them to buy medicine and by chance met Eint Khaing Oo, whereupon he agreed to help with arrangements to meet the officials in international agencies. He denied that they had said that the affected persons had not received any aid or had done anything wrong.

Even the prosecution witnesses gave evidence that supported the defendants. The local residents forced to speak for the police said that some anonymous person had come to the hall in which they were staying and complained that it was being damaged and its items stolen, and that they would have to go back to their destroyed houses. They also said that they had just wanted some supplies with which to rebuild, because it was in the rainy season and their houses had been wrecked in the cyclone, and for this reason they had gone with the two accused to the international groups' offices. And, they knew that the local Red Cross personnel had been involved in the plan and had also gone together to the ICRC office.

A local government official again said much the same thing, testifying that for various reasons--such as to repair electricity supply and clean up the building--the people would have to leave the hall where they had been staying. He also freely admitted that for the first 15 days the only assistance received in the area was from local well wishers like the two accused, and it was not until after that that the authorities even started to implement an organized plan to assess damage and invite outside help.

Notwithstanding, the judge in a verdict that contained no reasoning at all--other than implying that the burden of proof lay on the two accused to show that they were innocent--ignored their explanations and convicted them both to two years' imprisonment with hard labour for attempting to incite others to cause a public disturbance.

Kyaw Kyaw Thant was convicted to a further five years under a separate charge that was not lodged against him until later, for an offence under a colonial-era immigration law over a visit he took to Thailand in 2007. The authorities accused him of going to Thailand and staying illegally to meet opposition groups. In his defence Kyaw Kyaw Thant said that he had gone legally and as part of a media study tour in his capacity as a then editor of his publication. He didn't meet with opposition groups. In fact, he had applied for and obtained permission to travel abroad through the immigration department in accordance with the law and witnesses from the immigration department at the trial did not contradict this. He also submitted photographs of the visit (at news media offices in Thailand) to prove it. But again the judge convicted him without any evidence from the police to prove that he had gone illegally.

Kyaw Kyaw Thant is currently reported to be in ill health in the central Insein Prison. According to a relative who visited him, he has contracted some kind of respiratory illness and is very weak.

There are more details of the case in the sample letter below. We kindly request you to sign and send it.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The AHRC has been following some other criminal cases that arose after Cyclone Nargis, including the charges of terrorism lodged against human rights defender U Myint Aye (AHRC-UAC-183-2008) and charges against comedian Zarganar (AHRC-UAU-061-2008), both of whom were involved in relief efforts and who also spoke to the overseas media about what they saw and were doing. Zarganar's sentence was recently reduced from 59 to 35 years' imprisonment, while there are a range of concocted charges still pending against Myint Aye. See also UPI Asia on the cases of Zarganar and Myint Aye.

Kyaw Kyaw Thant's lawyer, U Khin Maung Shein, was himself in prison on a charge of contempt of court on the date that the verdict was read out against his client: for more on his case and that of another lawyer, see the AHRC campaign page: http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/burma-lawyers/  

See also the comprehensive report on Burma: "Burma, political psychosis and legal dementia" issued by the AHRC’s sister organisation and the 2008 AHRC Human Rights Report chapter on Burma.

For recent updates and news in Burmese, see the new AHRC blog: http://burma.blog.humanrights.asia/

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the persons listed below to call for the convictions of the two journalists to be reviewed and for them to be released without delay. Please note that for the purpose of the letter, the country should be referred to by its official title of Myanmar, rather than Burma, and Rangoon as Yangon.

Please be informed that the AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteurs on Myanmar, independence of judges and lawyers, and human rights defenders, as well as the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention and the regional human rights office for Southeast Asia, calling for interventions into this case. To support this appeal, please click here: