(Hong Kong, May 23, 2008) A lawyer in Burma has been awarded a prestigious European human rights award in recognition of his struggle for labour rights under extremely adverse conditions.
U Aye Myint, who has set up a legal aid group in Burma to handle cases of forced labour, illegal land confiscation and workers’ rights, was awarded the European Bar’s Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize on 17 May 2008.
He has twice been imprisoned over cases that he has brought to the courts and to the International Labour Organisation, and has had his licence to practice illegally revoked. On at least one occasion he suffered cruel and inhuman treatment by being kept hooded, handcuffed and unfed for days while detained.
Speaking to the Democratic Voice of Burma after the announcement, Aye Myint said that he would continue to struggle for rights in Burma for his whole life.
“I will fight any government or individual acting against the law,” he said.
Basil Fernando, executive director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, congratulated U Aye Myint on the award.
“The AHRC has followed Aye Myint’s work for a number of years and have great respect for the courageous efforts of he and other human rights lawyers in Burma working under what are some of the most extremely difficult conditions of anywhere in Asia,” Fernando said.
“Aye Myint is well-deserving of the award, but it should be seen as an award in acknowledgement of all lawyers in Burma who are fighting not only for the rights of their people but also to keep alive rational practices of law in what is otherwise a demented system,” he said.
The Hong Kong-based regional rights group has issued urgent appeals and advocated strongly both on cases that Aye Myint has handled as well as on his own imprisonment and the unlawful removal of his licence.
“At a time that Aye Myint’s country is facing its greatest challenge of modern times in the form of a cyclone of immense proportions and a government that has shown the worst ever response to a natural disaster in living memory, the presence and work of Aye Myint and others like him will be needed more than ever,” Fernando said.
Aye Myint told DVB that like others in recent weeks he had been collecting money and old clothes to send for victims of Cyclone Nargis, which hit the country on May 10.
The Ludovic-Trarieux prize has been awarded since 1984 by the Human Rights Institute of the European Bar. It is named after a former French justice minister who was a founding member and the first president of the French League for the Defence of Human Rights and the Citizen.
Full text of the award announcement follows.
Announcement of the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize 2008
In a meeting on May 17th 2008 in Luxemburg, the Jury of 21 European lawyers awarded the 13th International Human Rights Prize “Ludovic Trarieux” 2008 (“The award given by lawyers to a lawyer”) to Burmese labour lawyer (Myanmar) U Aye Myint.
The award will be presented to Prize winner in next October 2008 in Roma (Italia).
Lawyer U Aye Myint (alias Aye Myint Maung) and eight other persons were arrested on 17 July 2003 by members of the Military Intelligence and charged under section 122 of the Penal Code for High Treason for their antigovernment activities.
On 28 November, a Yangoon Martial Court held inside Insein prison convicted and sentenced to death U Aye Myint (alias Aye Myint Maung) and eight other persons.
They were convincted on 28 November 2003 by a under article 122/1 of the law for high treason for supposedly trying to murder the leaders of the SDPC. The nine were also accused of having contacts with political organizations in exile partly on the basis that he had communicated with the ILO [International Labour Organisation]. The others were Zaw Thet Htwe, Zaw Zaw, Zar Naing Htun (a student), Ne Win, Naing Yekkha (a political activist from New Mon State Party, also known as Shwe Mann), Than Htun, Myo Htway and Nai Min Kyi. Than Htun was released without explanation in December. His family said he was arrested by mistake.
One of the group died in detention after also being sent to Insein prison.
After pressure by International Labour Organisation (ILO), the death sentence was commuted to three years imprisonment, for treason. U Aye Myint was released in January 2005. But two New Mon State Party members Naing Yakkha and Naing Kyin Kaung are today serving life sentences in Rangoons Insein prison after being arrested for allegedly reporting military abuse to the International Labour Organization and for planting a bomb.
In 2005, Aye Myint, a labour lawyer, had brought to the attention of the ILO the complaints of residents in Phanungdawthi village tract who claimed their land had been seized by the military. Authorities alleged that he provided incorrect and false information in the complaint and arrested him on 27 August 2005. He was charged with violating section 5 (e) of the catch-all Emergency Provisions Act Lawyer U Aye Myint was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment allegedly for helping farmers report to the authorities and the ILO that local officials had confiscated their land. Because of his conviction, government authorities acted on 13 May 2006 to strip him of his licence to practice law and ensured his dismissal from the Bar Council, in contravention to Council regulations. The ILO made the release of Aye Myint an explicit condition of continued cooperation with Burma, and set a deadline for his release.
The ILO had given the authorities in Burma until the end of July to release Aye Myint, who had helped lodge a complaint to ILO staff, or face strong international legal action. Aye Myint has said that he will continue to take up rights-related cases, but it is unclear at this stage whether his licence to practice law will be returned to him or not. The SPDC finally released Aye Myint on 8 July 2006 from prison after serving 11 months of a seven year sentence after strenuous international pressure and attention. But at years end, his licence had still not been returned to him. Before being released Aye Myint was required to sign a document that if he commits any further offence in the remaining period of his sentence (six years and one month) then he will be returned to prison and required to serve out the full term.
On May 10, 2007 U Aye Myint, provides legal aid to more than 100 Naypyidaw construction workers planning to file a complaint with the International Labour Organization, claiming the In Arr Htet company failed to pay them more than 3.6 million kyats-worth of wages. The In Arr Htet company hired engineer Ko Moe Kyaw Latt to head the construction of three buildings in Burma’s new capital. After hiring more than 100 workers and starting construction, the company called off the project and refused to pay any wages to Ko Moe Kyaw Latt or the hired construction workers. U Aye Myint said the workers responded by occupying the former construction site in protest. “If grassroots people in Burma, such as the workers and farmers are insulted, they shouldn;t just feel dejected. They should report it… We won’t just stand by,” U Aye Myint said.
Recently, on January 15, 2008, U Aye Myint, as a leader of the Guiding Star legal aid group, is handling complaints from a group of farmers in Baw Ne village who claim they were forced to cultivate an area of scrubland along the Rangoon-Mandalay road. Villagers cultivated land promised to them by local officials and after they had worked the land during the rainy season, they were informed that the land was owned by a relative of junta leader senior general Than Shwe. They were charged under section 447 of the penal code for criminal trespass in a hearing at Dike Oo township court on 28 December 2007 and now face imprisonment. U Aye Myint is now finding witnesses and preparing evidence from the jailed villagers family members in order to help the villagers bring a forced labour complaint to the International Labour Organisation and report the matter to senior general Than Shwe.
