Press Release on the Arrest of Wai Phyo

By Generation Wave • July 11, 2013

Wai Phyo@Gali, Secretary of Generation Wave was arrested by Aung Lin Chief of Pyay Township police station (1) at 11:30 July 10th 2013. The police said they arrested him for a “Free Political Prisoners” poster campaign which he organized in July 2011. For that activity two other members of Generation Wave were arrested in July 2011 and sentenced for 3months imprisonment or 30,000 Kyats penalty in February 2012. Wai Phyo was escaped from arrest and police issued warrant on him since then.

On July 10th 2013, after arrest, police took him to Pyay Township court and asked permission from judge to detain him for interrogation for two weeks. Now he was under detention in jail at Pyay Township Police station (1). Police said they will take him to court again on 24th of this month and will prosecute him.

There were also several arrests, charges and long term imprisonments on some other human rights and political activists in recent months. So We (Generation Wave) would say government authorities’ repressions on activists could destroy the impression of democratic transition which was going by President’s lead, and it can decrease the trust on government from people of Myanmar and International community as well.

We, activists are raising the voices of people in the communities to government to know what’s happening in reality and find solutions for problems. That means we are just helping the government in democratic transition regarding President’s slogan “Parliament’s Voice must be People’s Voice”. Current repressions against activists could decrease civil societies’ participation and people voices could be deft as well. It could even stop the process of democratic transition of the country.

So we would like to recommend to government and authorities if they really believed in democracy and wanted to work together with people for building a new democratic society, trust civil societies and activists. And we call government to release immediately Ko Wai Phyo@Gali and all the political prisoners.

Download the press release in Burmese here.