Human Rights Watch today released detailed information on eighty-five Burmese parliamentarians who were elected in May 1990 and still remain in prison or in government "guest houses." May 27 marks the eleventh anniversary of the elections, the results of which the military government has refused to acknowledge.
Human Rights Watch urged the Burmese government to immediately and unconditionally release all imprisoned members of parliament.
"By freeing all imprisoned MP's, the Burmese government could demonstrate its willingness to begin addressing the country's massive human rights problems," said Joe Saunders, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "To have a truly meaningful dialogue, all opposition leaders should be free to express their views and ideas."
Saunders noted that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in April demanded the release of all political prisoners in Burma. He urged Japan and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to insist that Burma take concrete steps to improve basic human rights before it rewarded Rangoon with economic assistance for beginning a dialogue.
In elections on May 27, 1990, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won over 80 percent of the 485 seats at stake, and many smaller parties, some representing ethnic minorities, also won seats. Military authorities intervened, however, and none of those elected was ever seated. Some of the parliamentarians have been held since 1990, but most were arrested in subsequent crackdowns on the political opposition.
Others fled and went into exile or were pressured to resign from their political parties. At least four are believed to have died in detention.
Since October 2000, Burma's ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has held a number of meetings with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and has released more than one hundred political prisoners as a "confidence-building measure." None of the parliamentarians has been released, however, and at least 1,000 other political prisoners remain in detention, including students, members of ethnic minority groups, political party members, journalists, and lawyers.
Hard data on political prisoners is difficult to come by in Burma. The SPDC often does not provide basic information on prisoners, including what offenses they are charged with, the time and place of trials, and where they are detained or imprisoned.
Human Rights Watch's list of eighty-five MPs currently in prison or detention includes their place of detention and the charges and sentences imposed on those convicted of offenses. Human Rights Watch believes that all of the MPs are being detained for peaceful expression of their political views.
Of the eighty-five, forty-five have already been sentenced, most on charges of attempting to "undermine state security" under article 5j of Burma's Emergency Provisions Act. The sentences range from two years to thirty-seven, with most facing seven years or more in prison. Of the forty-five, thirty-eight are members of the NLD, three are from the Mon National Democratic Front, and one each are from the Arakan League for Democracy and the National Democratic Party for Human Rights. The parliamentarians sentenced most recently are Naing Naing, an NLD MP from Rangoon, sentenced to twenty-one years on December 14, 2000, and Min Shwe, an NLD Irrawaddy Division MP, sentenced to three years in March 2001.
The remaining forty parliamentarians being detained have not yet been tried or sentenced. With the exception of one Party for National Democracy MP, all are members of the NLD. Most of those being held without charge were first detained after participating in opposition efforts in September 1998 to form a parallel parliament, which they called the Committee Representing People's Parliament (CRPP), and most are being held in "guest houses" at various military bases, allowed to visit their homes only on weekends.
