Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to inform you that the five former student activists who were arrested between 27 and 30 September 2006 have been released from more than three months of detention in an unknown location. They were arrested by police as suspects of planning bombings in the country and accepting financial assistance from foreign embassies. However there were no proper legal proceedings following these allegations after they were arrested. Please refer our former update (UP-208-2006) and urgent appeal (UA-333-2006) for more details about their arrest and detention.
The AHRC has received information that on 11 January 2007 at around 1:30am the five former student activists–Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Kywe, Min Zeya and Pyone Cho– were released in two separate groups after more than three months of detention since they were arrested in late September of last year.
According to media reports, one of the released activists, Htay Kywe said that he was questioned about some bombings in the country and whether the five of them had been received financial assistance from foreign countries. He also told to the media that he and his fellow activists were treated well while they were detained. However the reason why they were released remains unclear.
The five activists were freed after an amnesty of 2,831 prisoners including up to 40 political prisoners on January 3.
However there are still many people in Burma who are under detention without being given a fair trial or proper legal proceedings. As far as the AHRC knows, two human rights defenders–Ko Win Ko and Phyoe Zaw Latt–who were arrested because of joining a petition campaign demanding the government to release the said five former student activists are still in jail without being allowed to see their lawyer. Please see UP-219-2006for more details of the arrest and jailing of those two human rights defenders.
Thank you.
Urgent Appeal Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)
