Report
The Repression of Ethnic Minority Activists in Myanmar
16 February 2010 ... Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have played an integral role in much of the political opposition against the government’s repressive conduct. Myanmar’s government has exacted a heavy price from peaceful critics from ethnic minorities: among other violations, arbitrary arrests, imprisonment, torture, and extrajudicial executions of activists are documented. With the 2010 elections looming, and the government’s intolerance of any group challenging its legitimacy, policies, and practices increasing, Amnesty International is concerned that the country’s ethnic minorities will suffer even worse violations.
The last time the country’s military government held general elections, in May 1990, it was defeated by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and a coalition of smaller opposition parties seeking to represent the country’s sizeable population of different ethnic minorities. The authorities responded by ignoring the election results and arresting scores of opposition leaders and parliamentarians.
Photo Credit: Boat with ‘NO’ (to the 2008 draft Constitution) in Kayah State, Myanmar, May 2008.
Human Rights in Myanmar: Overview
Longstanding human rights concerns:
- arbitrary arrests of political activists and anyone critical of the government
- torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, particularly during interrogation
- grossly unfair trials, often held inside prisons and lacking defence counsel
- extremely harsh sentences served in prisons remote from the prisoner’s family
- prison conditions that fail to meet international standards
- forced labour, particularly infrastructure work, enforced guard duties, portering for the military, violence against women and military recruitment of child soldiers
- repression of and discrimination against ethnic nationalities (in 2008 Amnesty International described the human rights violations committed by the military against Karens in eastern Myanmar as so grave, systematic and targeting primarily the civilian population as to constitute crimes against humanity)
- over 500,000 persons, primarily ethnic minorities, are currently internally displaced
Election 2010:
Later this year, Myanmar will hold its first election in 20 years. In 1990 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and other opposition parties won a landslide near-82% of parliamentary seats – a result the military promptly ignored. Under a new constitution, the 2010 election is supposed to provide the transition to a “disciplined democracy” and civilian rule for the first time since the 1962 military coup.
While the election date has not yet been announced, the Election Laws, promulgated on March 8, impose severe restrictions upon the electoral process and the participation of political parties. These restrictions, for example, require the NLD to expel Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (as currently “serving prison term”) and all party members in detention or previously convicted by a court, or face deregistration; require all parties to pledge to uphold the 2008 constitution; prohibit Myanmar media (already heavily censored) from publishing comment or analysis of the electoral laws; and grant sweeping powers to the new Election Commission, handpicked by the government. A party failing to register by May 7 will be deemed illegal. The international community has roundly condemned these laws and declared the election must be free, fair and inclusive if it is to be credible. Amnesty International has urged Myanmar to overturn the laws, release all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and remove all restrictions on their political activity.
The main opposition party, the NLD, has made its participation conditional upon, first, amendment of the new constitution; secondly, dialogue between the opposition parties, including those of the ethnic minorities, and the military; and, thirdly, the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Many other opposition parties have imposed similar conditions.
New Constitution:
Amnesty International considers the new constitution, approved by referendum in May 2008, to be deeply flawed because it fails to respect and protect human rights and because it is the product of a flawed drafting process lasting 14 years. Amnesty International is particularly concerned that, rather than attempting to introduce the rule of law and respect for human rights, the constitutional process sought to perpetuate and legitimize the government’s continuing human rights abuses and ensure impunity for past, present and future violations.
The new constitution is flawed because:
- it lacks provision for freedom of expression, association and assembly
- it lacks provision for freedom from torture and other ill-treatment
- it lacks crucial fair trial safeguards
- it grants the armed forces chief powers to outrank the President, including the assumption of power in times which the armed forces chief considers “times of emergency”
- it reserves 25% of seats (national and state) for the military
- it makes the President unanswerable to any court or parliament in exercising his duties
- it prevents any legal action against those “who officially carried out their duties according to their responsibilities” during the period of the military governments.
Because of these and other elements in the new constitution, Amnesty International calls for the constitution to be reformed or replaced, through a transparent, intimidation-free process, with a draft constitution that fully protects international human rights.
Grave human rights violations continue:
At least 2,200 political prisoners are currently held, and any real or perceived critics of the military government are often given extraordinarily harsh sentences (in one case, of 104 years). Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, having spent over 14 of the last 20 years mostly under house arrest, was sentenced to a further 18 months’ house arrest in August 2009. Her February 2010 appeal against the sentence has been denied. Amnesty International condemned her trial and her sentence. In July 2009 it gave her its most prestigious award, “Ambassador of Conscience.”
Amnesty International continues to call for reform of the judiciary; an end to torture, unfair trials and the harassment of defence lawyers; and reform of prison conditions which fail to meet international standards. It calls for unrestricted access to prisons by the International Committee of the Red Cross, denied since 2005.
Myanmar’s ethnic minorities are particularly subject to serious human rights violations:
Amnesty International’s report, The Repression of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar (February 2010) describes arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, torture and extra-judicial killings and, at the very least, extensive surveillance, harassment and discrimination. Ethnic minorities face widespread and systematic human rights violations, such as forced displacement, forced labour, confiscation of land and crops, or persecution for their religious beliefs. And in the Myanmar military’s concerted offensives against various armed ethnic groups, the civilian population has been seriously affected (some 5,000 Karen, 10,000 Mon and over 30,000 Kokang displaced in 2009 alone). The UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, in his March 2010 report to the UN Human Rights Council, has recommended the UN consider establishing a Commission of Inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Myanmar government.
Amnesty International’s 2004 report, Myanmar: The Rohingya minority – fundamental rights denied noted that the vast majority of Rohingyas continue to be effectively denied the right to a nationality under a 1982 law, thus rendering them stateless, and to live under severe restrictions. Many thousands have sought refuge in Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia, where they face widespread abuse and forced repatriation to Myanmar.
United Nations:
Amnesty International has called upon the UN Security Council to impose an international comprehensive and mandatory arms embargo on Myanmar. The primary arms suppliers to Myanmar are China, India, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine and possibly Singapore.
Myanmar regularly disregards United Nations calls – by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, by the UN Security Council, by the UN Human Rights Council and by the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana – to release all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi; to engage in dialogue with the opposition and ethnic nationalities; and to ensure the 2010 election is free and fair. Myanmar, however, with the support of allies like China and Russia, has consistently ignored UN resolutions and recommendations and has failed to live up to its international responsibilities.
Updated March 2010
