Statement of Detained Students

(Unofficial translation. For the original Burmese statement, please see here)
သေဘာထားေၾကညာခ်က္ ျမန္မာဘာသာကို ဤေနရာတြင္ ေဒါင္းလုပ္ရယူႏိုင္ပါသည္။

Letpadan, 12:00 9th April 2015

First of all, we would like to express our deep gratitude to the people and civil society groups for supporting our peaceful protests.

1. The trial should be public. We are encountering judicial flaws where even the judge has no real authority, making our parents, relatives and public unable to attend the hearings. This trial is a closed-door event where only lawyers, defendants and the judge are present under heavy security. We want a fair, open and public trial.
2. With regard to charges, we feel that the cases are deliberately exacerbated with prejudice: for example, by prosecuting us under Article 18 in all townships through which the boycott column has passed.
3. Such prejudice is also evident from government’s actions against simple prayer services, sticker campaigns, demonstrations and solidarity rallies held in support of detained students and people.
4. We are not opposing the government but have merely held peaceful demonstration in accordance with our beliefs for the sake of country’s progress regarding education reform.
5. Since we have trusted government’s promise to refrain from violent crackdown, we continued the boycott with no verbal or physical provocation, aggression or offense ever committed by our side from the start of boycott till the time we were arrested.
6. The current case is the perpetration of violence upon us. Demonstrations in Hledan, Kamayut [ Yangon] broke out due to violence against the main boycott column [in Latpadan] in breach of government promise.
7. When looking at the five charges (Articles 143, 145, 147, 332 and 505-b) currently being applied on prosecuted students and people, we categorically state that we have not committed these offences and these charges are not at all applicable.
8. Continued detention of us amid calls from the people and international community for our release is detrimental to the principle of national reconciliation, prompting other countries to misjudge Myanmar’s current democratic reform and the people to scorn the government.
9. We will continue standing by the NNER principle.
10. We will monitor how the parliament will draft the points demanded by us.
11. We would like to add that we will stand steadfastly with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s position: if she boycotts the election, we will stand with her; if she decides to run for election, we will campaign among the people to vote for NLD. Precisely speaking, democratic forces including all of us shall be inseparable and united firmly.

On behalf of detained students,

Min Thwe Thit, Phyo Phyo Aung, Nandar Sitt Aung

This post is in: Press Release