Dear friends,
In recent weeks there has been a great deal of news internationally about the plight of Rohingya leaving from western Burma in boats whom navy and security personnel of Thailand have pushed back into the ocean. In order to illustrate some of the problems that they face in Burma, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) brings the case of U Kyaw Min and his family, who in 2005 were given long jail sentences for supposedly giving false information about their ethnicity in order to get citizenship. In fact, the family are Rohingya but because the government refuses to acknowledge the existence of this group, their ethnicity was recorded as Indian. The family was targeted because of Kyaw Min’s political activities and the false information about their ethnic identity was used as a pretext to imprison not only him but also his wife and three of his children.
CASE DETAILS
U Kyaw Min and his family members were all born in Burma and are lifelong residents. He holds a number of degrees from institutions in Burma and worked as a township education officer and a school headmaster, both government posts. He was popular and well known in his community of Buthidaung and so after 1988 when he became politically active in 1990 he successfully ran for a seat in parliament; however, he was sacked from his job as school headmaster in 1989 because of his party politics. After the election results were denied and his party was banned, in 1992 he moved his family to Rangoon but continued to take an interest and remain active in political affairs. Throughout this time there was never any question of the validity of his or his family’s citizenship, even though the election commission scrutinized Kyaw Min’s personal records before allowing him to stand for election to ensure that both he and his wife were citizens.
In 2005, because he was joining with other elected members of parliament to call for the legislature to be allowed to sit and also apparently because he met with representatives of the International Labour Organisation visiting Rangoon, his family was targeted. Officials accused them of lying about their ethnicity and falsely obtaining citizenship, accusing them of being Bengali and residing in the city without permission. Authorities took Kyaw Min from his residence in the night of March 17 before brining charges against him and his family members under the citizenship law and emergency regulations.
Kyaw Min explained to the court, in which he was not represented by a lawyer, that his family is Rohingya but because this is not an officially recognized ethnic group that they had gone along with whatever the officials had put down for the purposes of ethnicity in the past. However, the court rejected this argument and found them guilty of lying about their identity.
Under the citizenship law, the maximum penalty for this offence is ten years imprisonment, which is already vastly excessive by international standards. However, in order to penalize U Kyaw Min and his family far beyond this, the police lodged four identical separate cases for different members of the family even though the offence was the same and they should have been lodged as a single case. All four were brought against Kyaw Min, even though there is nothing in the section of law under which they were charged to penalize someone giving false information concerning someone else, i.e. for his family members. They also lodged a separate case against each under the emergency regulations that in lying about their identities the family had “spread false news”, even though the section was completely irrelevant to the case, but for which they each received a seven-year penalty. In total Kyaw Min was sentenced to 47 years and his wife and three children, 17 years each.
Appeals were lodged for Kyaw Min and family at the divisional court and Supreme Court on a range of grounds; however, the Supreme Court and its special appeals bench dismissed the appeal without considering the substance of the facts at all.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Kyaw Min was previously imprisoned for short periods because of his political activities: in 1992 military intelligence held him without charge for three months, and when a United Nations official visited his township thereafter he was detained for 15 days so that they could not meet. In 1994 the military intelligence again detained him for 45 days over the activities of insurgents in the area.
Kyaw Mins case and the plight of his family illustrates to the systemic abuse of the legal system in Burma, on which the AHRC has written and studied at length and which it has characterised as an injustice system. Among relevant material, see: “Burma, political psychosis and legal dementia” and “Saffron Revolution imprisoned, law demented” issued by the AHRC’s sister organisation and the 2008 AHRC Human Rights Report chapter on Burma. See also a new campaign page on the situation of lawyers in Burma.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the persons listed below to call for the charges against the 13 persons to be reviewed and for them to be released without delay. Please note that for the purpose of the letter, the country should be referred to by its official title of Myanmar, rather than Burma, and Rangoon, Yangon.
Please be informed that the AHRC is writing a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteurs on Myanmar and on contemporary forms of racism, as well as the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention and the regional human rights office for Southeast Asia, calling for interventions into this case.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear ___________,
MYANMAR: Family of five imprisoned for long terms after citizenship wrongly revoked
Victims:
1. U Kyaw Min, a.k.a. Md. Shamsul Anwarul Haque, 58, Prisoner No. 0334/C, Insein Central Prison; graduate of Rangoon Institute of Economics and Rangoon Institute of Education, former Lettauk Township Education Officer and headmaster of Basic Education Middle School, elected member of parliament for Buthidaung Township (National Democratic Party for Human Rights), constituency no. 1; convicted to 47 years with labour
2. Daw Khaw Tizar, wife of U Kyaw Min, Prisoner No. 1276/C, Insein Central Prison; convicted to 17 years with labour
3. Maung Aung Naing, son of U Kyaw Min, Prisoner No. 4188/Ei, Insein Central Prison; convicted to 17 years
4. Ma Khin Khin Nu, daugher of U Kyaw Min, Prisoner No. 1278/C, Insein Central Prison; convicted to 17 years
5. Ma Wei Wei Nu, daughter of U Kyaw Min, Prisoner No. 1277/C, Insein Central Prison; convicted to 17 years
Prosecuting officer: Inspector Saw Albert
Investigating officers: Inspector Win Tint Htun Naing, Inspector Sein Myint (Crime)
Other officials:
1. U Thant Zin, Dagon New Town Port Township Department of Immigration & National Registration (DINR)
2. U Tin Kyi, Dagon New Town Port Township DINR
3. U Htun Oo, Dagon New Town Southern Township DINR
4. U Hla Thein, Chairman, Ward 88 Peace & Development Council, Dagon New Town Port Township
Charge and hearings: Charged under 18 of the 1982 Citizenship Law, case nos. 49-52/05, and section 5(e) of the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, case no. 55/05, Yangon Western District Court, decided by District Judge No. 4, 29 July 2005; appeals to Yangon Divisional Court No. 141/2005 (Kyaw Min) dismissed on 9 December 2005, Judge Myint Win (Assistant Divisional Judge No. 8) presiding; appeals to Supreme Court heard on 3 May 2006 before Judge U Khin Maung Aye dismissed without hearing; appeal to Supreme Court special appellate bench, Nos. 177-181/2006, heard by Justices Dr. Tin Aung Aye (President of the Special Appellate Bench) and U Chit Lwin dismissed on 23 August 2006
I am distressed to learn that a family of five has been imprisoned in Myanmar on spurious allegations of giving false information about their racial identity, apparently as an act of revenge for the political activity of one of its members.
According to the information that I have received, U Kyaw Min and his family members were all born in Burma and are lifelong residents. He holds a number of degrees from institutions in Burma and worked as a township education officer and a school headmaster. In 1990 he successfully ran for a seat in parliament for the township of Buthidaung, Rakhaing State. After the election results were denied, in 1992 he moved his family to Yangon when the government banned his political party under Order No. 8/92 (18 March 1992). Throughout this time there was never any question of the validity of his or his family’s citizenship, even though the election commission scrutinized Kyaw Min’s personal records before allowing him to stand for election to ensure that both he and his wife were citizens.
In 2005, because Kyaw Min was joining with other elected members of parliament to call for the legislature to be allowed to sit, and also apparently because he met with representatives of the International Labour Organisation visiting Yangon it appears that his family was targeted out of revenge. Officials accused them of lying about their ethnicity and falsely obtaining citizenship, accusing them of being Bengali, not Myanmar nationals. Officials detained Kyaw Min on the night of 17 March 2005, giving no reason why they were taking him and denying him access to visits of family and his lawyer. Thereafter they detained his wife and children. All five were charged under section 18 of the 1982 Citizenship Act that, “A citizen who has acquired citizenship by making a false representation or by concealment shall have his citizenship revoked, and shall also be liable to imprisonment for a term of ten years and to a fine of kyats fifty thousand” and under the 1950 Emergency Regulations.
In court, where he did not have a lawyer to represent him, Kyaw Min explained to the court that his family is Rohingya but because this is not an officially recognized ethnic group that they had gone along with whatever the officials had put down for the purposes of ethnicity in the past. However, the court rejected this argument and found them guilty of lying about their identity.
In order to penalize U Kyaw Min and his family far beyond the maximum already set down in the citizenship law, the police lodged four identical separate cases for different members of the family even though the offence was the same and under law they should have been lodged as a single case. All four were brought against Kyaw Min, even though there is nothing in the section of law under which they were charged to penalize someone giving false information concerning someone else, i.e. for his family members. The police also lodged a separate case against each under the emergency regulations that in lying about their identities the family had “spread false news”, even though the section was completely irrelevant to the case, but for which they each received a seven-year penalty. In total Kyaw Min was sentenced to 47 years and his wife and three children, 17 years each.
A lawyer lodged appeals for Kyaw Min and family at the Yangon Divisional Court and Supreme Court on a range of grounds pointing to the factual and procedural flaws in the original case; however, the courts successively dismissed the appeals without considering the substance of the appeals at all and merely restating what had already been decided in the lower court.
At a time that the plight of the Rohingyas in Myanmar has come to international attention, I am outraged at the treatment of this family and the manner in which these charges have been brought against them without regards to international or domestic law. I call for an immediate review of the case that led to their convictions at all levels and in all concerned agencies to ensure their release, particularly also in light of the planned General Election in 2010, the spirit of which will be severely undermined if persons who were elected to the parliament in the previous ballot are denied the opportunity to again participate.
I also take this opportunity to call for review and amendment of the 1982 Citizenship Law, which is an unpleasant anachronism that imposes unreasonable and excessive penalties for relatively minor offences, which has rendered stateless hundreds of thousands of people living in Myanmar under its restrictive defining of citizenship, and which, as in this case, clearly allows for sanctions to be placed on people who have lived in Myanmar all their lives as Myanmar citizens and yet may at any time find their rights revoked on the pretext that there is something in their past that invalidates their status.
Finally, I take this opportunity to remind the Government of Myanmar of the need to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to places of detention and not least of all, access to those persons and forcibly disrobed monks and nuns who have been held in violation of criminal procedure and without charge or trial since September 2007.
Yours sincerely
—
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Maj-Gen. Maung Oo
Minister for Home Affairs
Ministry of Home Affairs
Office No. 10
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: +95 67 412 079/ 549 393/ 549 663
Fax: +95 67 412 439
2. Lt-Gen. Thein Sein
Prime Minister
c/o Ministry of Defence
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: + 95 1 372 681
Fax: + 95 1 652 624
3. U Aung Toe
Chief Justice
Office of the Supreme Court
Office No. 24
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: + 95 67 404 080/ 071/ 078/ 067 or + 95 1 372 145
Fax: + 95 67 404 059
4. U Aye Maung
Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
Office No. 25
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: +95 67 404 088/ 090/ 092/ 094/ 097
Fax: +95 67 404 146/ 106
5. Brig-Gen. Khin Yi
Director General
Myanmar Police Force
Ministry of Home Affairs
Office No. 10
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: +95 67 412 079/ 549 393/ 549 663
Fax: +951 549 663 / 549 208
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
