BURMA/MYANMAR: Student Activist Phyu Hnin Htwe Falsely Accused of Abduction

September 26, 2014

Ms. Phyu Hnin Htwe, a 23-year-old, member of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) from Yadanabon University, Mandalay has been falsely implicated in the abduction of two Chinese workers from an army-backed copper mine project. On 20 September 2014, four months after the incident, she was arrested in her hometown under Penal Code Section 364 and 368. She is currently detained in Monywa Prison and awaiting trial in Yinmabin District Court. Ms. Phyu Hnin Htwe has already attended two trials. Her lawyer has applied for bail on September 23, but it has not been granted.

On 18 May 2014, three workers, one Burmese worker and two Chinese workers of the Wanbao Mining Company’s Letpadaung Copper Mine Project, were illegally detained by the local people from Yinmabin Township. The workers had come to the village to survey the land, but the villagers, whose lands were seized for the project, abducted the workers; they were concerned that the government was ignoring them in favour of the Chinese company. The villagers immediately released the Burmese worker but intended to use their detention of the two Chinese workers to draw the government’s attention to their grievances. The following day, local authorities negotiated with the people granting them the right to use their land again and preventing the company from further fencing off sections of the area. The villagers set the two Chinese workers free, after the verbal agreement with the authorities.

While these events were taking place, Ms. Phyu Hnin Htwe was at the home of a local family, tutoring their children. She was not involved in kidnapping the workers. According to local sources, she was only present in the area to volunteer help to local students and to provide support for the people who had lost their lands. Nevertheless, she has been accused of helping the villagers kidnap the workers. The members of the victim’s student union, among others, believe that membership in the union is one of the main reason she is being singled out by the government.

On 22 May 2014, the court charged seven people, including Ms. Phyu Hnin Htwe, for the abduction. Five of the seven were arrested, charged, convicted, but then pardoned. There has been no attempt to arrest the other two, including Ms. Phyu Hnin Htwe, at the time. Now that Ms. Phyu Hnin Htwe has been arrested, only one of the seven remains at large.

Letpadaung Copper Mine Project is being operated by the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited and Wanbao Mining Company, China. There are many nationwide objections to the project, because of the side-effects that impact the environment and livelihood of local people. Activists who were helping the local people in the Letpadaung area had been prosecuted with various offenses (see AHRC-STM-173-2013 and AHRC-STM-082-2013. The plaintiff of the case is an employee of the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited.

The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns the politically motivated prosecution of a young student for crime that she has not committed. The AHRC urges the courts to act independently, consider the facts, dismiss the case, and release the girl immediately.

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-174-2014

BURMA: Military demands farmers destroy their own homes

August 22, 2014

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-162-2014

Farmers from Ngetpyawtine village tract, Kanbalu Township, Sagaing Division, have been instructed by the Township Administrative Office to remove the houses they have built on their own farmland. The administration and the No. 2 Shwe Bo Logistic Battalion have warned the farmers that if they do not dismantle the houses and leave the land, they will be prosecuted.

In 1997, under the military regime, the lands of Ngetpyawtine farmers were confiscated illegally, without due process of law or compensation. The military battalion and Myanmar Economic Corporation wrested this land to establish a sugarcane plantation and a sugar production factory.

Since the 2008 thaw in Burma, while the nation converts from a military to a civilian government, tens of thousands of farmers – such as those in Ngetpyawtine – have lost land to unjust land-grabbing by the military and other departments of government. These victims have been making attempts to wrest control of their land, and protesting the doublespeak and continuing unjust actions of corrupt military officials (For background and recent AHRC documentation of the friction between protesting farmers and corrupt officials, click here, here, &here).

Between 1997 and 2013, the Ngetpyawtine farmers who lost their land to the military have became serfs on their own land. Rather than food for their sustenance they could only grow sugarcane on their land, and for this privilege were forced to pay a tax to the No. 2 Shwe Bo Logistic Battalion. In other words, military officials became akin to feudal lords.

In October 2013, the Burmese Parliament, controlled by a majority of retired military officials, promulgated the "Farmers Rights Protection and Promotion of Interest Law". Apart from other notable clauses that have changed the equation vis-à-vis farmers and the state, this law effectively recognized the possessor of land as owner. As a result, since the passage of the law, attempts by Burmese farmers to possess and farm their confiscated land have risen across the country.

Farmers in Ngetpyawtine village tract likewise took the decision to re-possess their land, building homes on the land and commencing farming crops for their own needs. The military battalion has responded in June 2014 by destroying the crops planted by the farmers. At first, the military said that they were doing "training exercises" on the land and the destruction began. Furthermore, as per the directions of the military and compromised and corrupt officials and judges, many of the farmers have been prosecuted for "trespassing" on their own land and sentenced to prison.

Now the military is destroying the fields without even caring to provide even the "training" excuse. Over 200 soldiers have been destroying the farmers' crops on the confiscated land since July 22, 2014. Out of 13,000 acres, approximately 5,000 acres have already been destroyed.

The No. 2 Shwe Bo Logistic Battalion have threatened more prosecutions for farmers who do not vacate the land, and the township authorities have also pressured the farmers to leave. The farmers have asked authorities to stop the military from destroying their crops. However, the authorities and a township law officer have responded by stating that the farmers do not have documents to prove the lands belong to them. In fact, for some portions of land, the farmers even obtained permission from the government to use the land for their cultivation;, but crops grown on these lands have also been destroyed. Over 450 farmers from the area are being prosecuted (See AHRC-UAC-109-2014), 65 farmers are already in jail, and over 350 farmers are in the "trial process". The farmers are facing immense difficulty under military pressure.

In support of the incarcerated farmers, an attempt was made the day before yesterday, August 20, 2014, to file an appeal in the district court. Lawyer U Thein Than Oo and court clerks prepared the appeal, which the court allowed them to file after normal business hours.

However, before the court accepted the appeal, Central Executive Committee member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) U Than Tun arrived at the court and told U Thein Than Oo that the court will not hear the appeal, and that it will be heard by the Magway Division Court instead. As the case is of immense interest to USDP, which is the incumbent military-backed party, the party will likely interfere with the appeal when it reaches a divisional court or the Naypyitaw Court. The judge will likely be forced to dismiss the case.

The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns the military of Burma's destruction of the Ngetpyawtine farmers' crops and urges the authorities to amend the order for the removal of their homes. It is the duty of the state to protect the livelihood of the farmers, not to usurp their land and livelihood illegally and then use other illegal and unjust methods to cover for the original crime.

Last week, on 15 August 2014 at Naypyitaw, the President U Thein Sein said "granting land to landless people is an important task in the process of socioeconomic development and reducing poverty". This is just the kind of doublespeak that Burma does not need. The machinery of government is siding with corrupt military officials to make farmers landless, and worse, destroying their homes, and sentencing them for years in prison as common criminals.

If the President says one thing and the military and the courts do the exact opposite, it spells doom not only for the tens of thousands of suffering farmers, but also for the international players chomping at the bit for a piece of the Burma pie.

BURMA: UNODC agreement on the rule of law, a step in the right direction

August 22, 2014

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-163-2014

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has announced its agreement with the Burmese government to collaborate on strengthening the rule of law and addressing significant drug and crime threats. The agreement, the result of over a year of negotiations, will cover a period of three years (2014 – 2017). It has been reviewed and approved by President U Thien Sein and the Cabinet.

This agreement views crimes and problems relating to drugs within a larger framework. Often, drug use, farming, trafficking, and similar crimes are addressed singularly – separate from the problems relating to the rule of law and law enforcement. However, in the context of a country where the system of law enforcement has virtually collapsed, it is impossible to deal with drugs and related crimes without, at the same time, addressing failures in criminal justice and law enforcement.

As UNODC announced in a statement, it is recognized that “criminal activity in Myanmar is undermining development efforts, increasing human insecurity and threatening the peace process”. At the signing ceremony, Mr. Jeremy Douglas, UNODC regional representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, said, “By working together to improve law enforcement and criminal justice capacity, increase the availability of quality health services for drug users and offering sustainable economic alternatives for opium farmers and their families, we will be contributing to the economic and social development of the country."

UNODC now has an opportunity to assist the Burmese government on this all-important issue of criminal justice reforms, which would create the basis for a functional public justice system. The Asian Human Rights Commission has, for long, pointed to the nature of the system of administration of justice prevalent in Myanmar, which is, in fact, the opposite of a proper criminal justice system. If the UNODC is to succeed in implementing this agreement, it will have to face up to some of the most difficult problems relating to the dysfunctional nature of the Burmese court system.

Some of the more crucial problems are as follows:

A functional criminal justice system requires competence at the level of the police that need to record complaints of crimes from the people and conduct investigations. Competent prosecutors and judicial officers are also needed. Creating this kind of competence requires considerable effort to educate the police, prosecution, and judiciary on fundamental principles and practices of criminal justice.

What prevails at the moment is a system in which the police, prosecution, and judiciary merely carry out executive orders. Professional development of the police, prosecution, and judiciary would require each of these branches to have independence, in order to carry out their duties on the basis of law, rather than political exigencies as dictated by the executive. As UNODC is working with the government, it will be its duty to help the government develop policies compatible with the functioning of criminal justice.

Another essential area of concern is thorough reforms of all the procedures presently being followed that obstruct criminal justice. Although the British introduced some basic criminal justice procedures, these have been ignored during the period of military rule and, at the moment, there is not even a memory of procedural requirements guaranteeing the rights of all parties to litigation. UNODC should, therefore, redefine and redraft the basic procedural laws to be followed in courts.

Associated with the above is the requirement of adequate funding for all the functions of criminal justice. This implies adequate salaries for the police, prosecutors, and judicial officers. It also requires proper equipment for forensic work relating to criminal investigations, as well as other material resources, such as transport, communications, and the like.

In implementing the above, it will also be necessary to re-establish proper criteria and procedures for the recruitment, promotion, transfer, and dismissal for all the officials involved in the administration of justice. At the moment, severe forms of corruption mar all these aspects. Replacing corrupt practices with meritocratic measures is essential if a sound criminal justice system is to emerge. 

The task that UNODC has undertaken in this agreement with the government is challenging. It firstly calls for a close study of the system as it operates now, to illustrate how criminal justice is frustrated through the working of the system. By consulting with lawyers and others involved in the administration of justice, the UNODC could gather information on the existing system, which would help them develop recommendations for reforms. 

Criminal justice reform also depends on Burmese legal professionals becoming more competent. Long years of military control have deprived the legal profession from functioning on the basis of professional requirements. Providing opportunities for better education, coupled with actual changes in court procedures, can help improve practices within the legal profession.

The Asian Human Rights Commission, while congratulating the UNODC and the government for adopting a far-sighted approach in dealing with drugs and other crimes, calls upon lawyers and civil society organisations to extend their support to ensure successful implementation of this agreement.

BURMA/MYANMAR: Police fire on farmers protesting land grabbing

August 14, 2014

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-154-2014

Police in the Mandalay region of Burma shot farmers who were protesting their land having been grabbed by the military. The protest, which took place this morning (14th August 2014) involved the farmers ploughing the fields that had been taken from them.

The farmers are from Nyaung Wine Village, Singu Township, Mandalay Region. Over 6,000 acres of their lands were confiscated in 1991 by the 121 Logistic Battalion. As usual in such cases of land grabbing, the farmers were not provided any compensation as per law.

This morning, when the farmers, numbering around 200, gathered for the protest against the military’s land grabbing, nearly 50 police personnel with weapons and shields arrived on the spot and shot at the farmers.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that one of the victims of the shootings is Ma San Kyin Nu, a 30-year-old mother of two. She has been shot. As per the information received by activists on the ground, Ma San Kyin Nu has been admitted to Mandalay General Hospital for urgent medical treatment.

As a result of the police brutality, the protesting farmers disallowed the police from making any arrests. However, later, another 100 police personnel arrived and blockaded the entire village.

Across Burma, farmers are facing such vexing problems, where their land, their source of sustenance and community, has been taken forcibly taken from them by the military or relatives of senior milliard officials. And, the farmers’ attempts to cultivate this land, which they know belongs to them, is being met with brutal crackdown, by the military battalions, the courts, and now even police shootings.

Recently, the AHRC received information about farmers from Kanbalu Township who are being sentenced to prison terms for “trespassing” on their own land (AHRC-UAU-025-2014). The AHRC has also documented other incidents of farmer’s land being grabbed by the military and by private corporations (AHRC-STM-143-2014). These cases establish a clear pattern of the military abusing its power and an absence of any system of redress. Furthermore, it is clear that the Burmese government has failed to provide any legal framework, protection, or remedy to the hapless rural population of the nation.

This pattern of land grabbing and violent followup to the original crime, without any possibility of legal recourse for the victim farmers, and this most recent shooting, indicates that there is not even a vestige of the rule of law in Burma.

The AHRC condemns the violence displayed by the police to intimidate the citizens, and insists that the government sets the farmers free immediately. The AHRC urges the government of Burma to solve these land problems in a peaceful way and uphold the farmers rights to their land. Burma must make these changes if it would like to make a claim of being a democratic and free nation.