UN Rapporteur Quintana’s Visit to Burma

By Burma Partnership • February 22, 2010

United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, was in Burma this past week, the first international visit to the country since the US State Department delegation trip in November. On 16 and 17 February, Quintana visited Sittwe in Burma’s Arakan State and traveled another 3 hours by boat to reach Buthidaung prison, where he met with political prisoners Ko Htay Khwe, Ko Mrat Tun, Ko Kyaw Min, Miha Ahmad, and Ko Tun Nyo. Back in Rangoon, Quintana met with recently-released Vice Chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), U Tin Oo, and five other members of the executive, to discuss the importance of the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners in the lead up to the elections. Ahead of the UN Rapporteur’s visit to Insein prison, a letter from prisoners there was leaked, demanding improved conditions, including access to reading materials and better food and health care.

The junta denied Quintana’s request to meet with Senior General Than Shwe and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. On leaving the country, he said that the participation of Daw Suu and the nearly 2,200 other political prisoners are necessary for this year’s elections to be credible.

Despite the presence of an international observer, the junta’s courts handed out sentences to four women who have led weekly prayer services at the Shwedagon pagoda for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as U Gaw Thita, a monk returning from a trip to Taiwan. These are the latest unjust sentences meted out in the lead up to the junta’s so-called “free and fair” elections.

The labour strikes that began last week in Rangoon’s outskirts expanded to another two factories. On 16 February, more than 200 workers went on strike demanding increased salary, decreased working hours and fair treatment by supervisors. And in the afternoon of 19 February we received news that as many as 800 workers at Yes Two candy factory in Shwepyithar township also went on strike with the same demands. These strikes show that discontent about the economic situation and lack of labour rights under the junta’s rule are widespread. One can recall that difficult economic circumstances and the junta’s overnight hike of fuel prices in 2007 led to the largest protests Burma had seen since 1988.

Tags: Burma Partnership, Tomas Ojea Quintana, Weekly Highlights

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UN Rapporteur Quintana’s Visit to Burma

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