Mizzima News

Chiang Mai, Thailand - Despite the Burmese junta's assurance to the United Nations that it would cease arresting and detaining dissidents, Amnesty International, a global human rights group, says the detention of activists continues unabated.

Earlier in November Burmese Prime Minister Lt-Gen. Thein Sein told visiting United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari that the govenment had ceased arresting political activists, instead releasing several people detained in connection to the September protests.

However, a new report released by London-based Amnesty International says the Burmese military regime continues to arrest dissidents, with at least 96 activists arrested since November.

Catherine Baber, director of the Amnesty International Asia-Pacific program, said, "Four months on from the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrators, rather than stop its unlawful arrests the Myanmar government has actually accelerated them."

The report says at least 15 protesters and their supporters have been sentenced to prison terms since last November. Further, in December and January, the junta targeted people who have attempted to send evidence of the crackdown to the international community, clearly showing that the government's chief priority is to silence citizens who would hold them to account.

The report says, to date, the junta have arrested at least 700 people during and since the September protests, while 1,150 political prisoners held prior to the protests have yet to be released.

And since the September demonstrations, more than 80 persons are estimated to be victims of enforced disappearance, the report added.

However, Tate Naing, secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association of Political Prisoners - Burma (AAPPB), said the Amnesty International report excludes those arrested recently, believing the number of arrests to be even higher.

"In recent days, after the report had been written, the Burmese authorities have arrested at least 8 more people. Most of them are members of the NLD. The last person to be arrested is poet Saw Wai. He is charged with a disrespectful act against the government," Tate Naing said.

He added that the junta is continuing to keep close watch over political activists and former political prisoners and is continuing to arrest them.

"Former political prisoners are required to report their movements to the authorities, without which they cannot move or go out anywhere," Tate Naing said.

Following the September demonstrations, former NLD member Naw Ohn Hla, who had led the Tuesday prayers for the release of Burmese pro-democracy leaders and other political prisoners, has been restricted from leaving her home in Hmawbe Township in Rangoon.

The Amnesty International report details the names of those arrested since November, including poet Saw Wai, members of the NLD, 8 members of the Kachin Independence Army, monks and labor rights activists.

In a joint statement issued yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, foreign ministers of the United States, United Kingdom and French urged the Burmese junta to respect human rights and allow the early return of the United Nations Special Envoy to promote dialogue between the junta and opposition.