Burma: Judicial Harassment and Arbitrary Detention of Ms. Phyu Hnin Htwe

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in Burma […]

Arrest of Student on Trumped-up Charges is a Damning Indictment of Justice in Burma

On 13 September 2014, police arrested female human rights defender (HRD) Phyu Hnin Htwe at her house in Patheingyi Township, Mandalay Region, and sent her to Monywa Prison, Sagaing Region, where she is currently being detained. Phyu Hnin Htwe is a second-year Burmese student at Mandalay’s Yadanabon University, and is also an activist and member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU). She has helped farmers who have been forcibly evicted to make way for the infamous Chinese-backed Letpadaung copper mine in Sagaing Region, going to the Letpadaung area at weekends and supporting displaced farmers.
Her arrest ostensibly relates to a murky incident that took place on 18 May of this year. Two Chinese workers – employees of Wanbao company, the main company involved in the joint venture – were seized from the Letpadaung area, taken to a monastery in Hsete Village, and held there for about 30 hours. The incident followed efforts by Wanbao employees to restart measuring plots of land for which compensation had not even been provided, in spite of villagers’ protests, thereby provoking their anger.

As a result, Phyu Hnin Htwe and six villagers were charged with kidnapping and abduction under Articles 364 and 368 of the Penal Code, which prescribe sentences of up to ten years’ imprisonment. While the case against five of the villagers was quickly dropped, charges still remain against Phyu Hnin Htwe and local villager Win Kyaw, neither of whom attended court in May […]

Still No Freedom for Burma’s Students

Over the weekend, Thein Sein’s government has shown to harbour the same paranoia regarding students that successive military regimes have held for the past fifty years as nearly two dozen student activists were arrested on Friday evening.

Saturday July 7 marked fifty years since the massacre of students by the Ne Win-led military regime and the subsequent bombing of the student union building at the University of Rangoon. To mark the event, a group of students planned to hold a ceremony at the long-empty building and lay a wreath at its door. Yet in a shameless act of fear, the authorities arrested around twenty student activists in a pre-emptive act, and detained them until after the event had been scheduled to take place. Students were not only arrested in Rangoon, but in Lashio, Mandalay, Shwebo, and Myingyan too. According to an 88 Generation Student spokesperson, the authorities claimed they just wanted to talk to the organizers of the event but this scarcely fools anyone […]

Student Activist Arrests Warning Sign on Limits of Burma Reform

Burma Campaign UK today called on European governments to view the arrests of around 20-30 student and youth activists in Burma on July 6th and 7th as a warning sign of the limits of reform in Burma. The arrests took place in several cities […]

AIPMC Calls for Release of Student Leaders Detained Ahead of July 7 Commemoration Events

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) today called on the government of the Union of Myanmar to immediately release student leaders detained in Mandalay, Yangon and other cities and to ensure students and civil society groups are given the freedom to assemble and exercise their democratic rights […]

Statement on the 4th Anniversary of the Saffron Revolution

“We Want Real Change in Burma, Not Public Relations Games”

On the 4th anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, an alliance of Burma‐related organizations in Chiang Mai has organized this candlelight vigil and rally to call on the international community to maintain pressure on Burma’s regime until it carries out a genuine democratic transition by immediately and unconditionally releasing all political prisoners and ending impunity for human rights abusers […]

We Want Real Change in Burma, Not Public Relations Games

On the 4th anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, an alliance of Burma-related organizations in Chiang Mai has organized a candlelight vigil and rally to call on the international community to maintain pressure on Burma’s regime until it carries […]

The Cause of Cessation of Civil War and Realization of National Peace – The Cause of Entire People

The civil war in Burma is a dreadful war that came into being since 1948. After sixty years, no successive government has been able to stop the civil war and achieve genuine peace. The SLORC-SPDC military regime’s attainment of ceasefire with ethnic armed forces was but a long-term plan to corral them into surrender […]

Demand to the Chinese Government to Stop Dam Projects and Plea to the Chinese People

Presently Thein Sein regime is waging fierce offensives against Kachin people and the Kachin Independence Army with the aim of implementing dam projects in Kachin State. The world is witnessing damage to Kachin people’s life and property wrought by military assaults. The Chinese government should know better than the whole world about the impact of military assaults in Kachin State as multitudes of refugees are flowing into China […]

Immediately Withdraw Military Regime’s Sanctions upon the People

The SPDC military regime is found to be interminably blaming and rebuking sanctions imposed by democratic powers. Similarly, political parties that have contested in 2010 elections as well as ASEAN countries are also echoing the regime’s line […]