(Hong Kong, March 1, 2007) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on Thursday sent a detailed report on the illegal and arbitrary detention of seven persons in Burma to a United Nations specialist group.
The Hong Kong-based regional organisation submitted the 22-page document to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the case of Hkun Htun Oo and six others who were convicted of treason in 2005.
“We have issued a number of appeals on the case detailing the many legal and procedural flaws during the arrest, trial and conviction of the original nine accused,” Kim Soo A, urgent appeals coordinator of the AHRC, said.
“They were arrested without warrants, denied access to lawyers, tried at a special tribunal without jurisdiction under inapplicable laws on multiple charges concerning the same alleged offences, and given insufficient opportunities to present witnesses or cross-examine those for the prosecution,” she said.
“The working group contacted us and asked that we submit further documentation on the seven men still in detention, which we have done today,” Kim said.
“We look forward to its intervention,” she added.
Of the two other accused, one died in custody during 2005 while the other appeared as a state witness and was released.
The seven still in prison were sentenced to between 75 and 106 years for their supposed roles in forming an anti-government organisation, which they claim was a body aimed at bringing peace to northeastern Shan state, which borders China, Laos and Thailand.
The region has been plagued by years of civil conflict and remains home to one armed group still at war with the government, alongside numerous ceasefire groups and militias.
Three of the seven are members of the Shan National League for Democracy, a registered political party that was chaired by Hkun Htun Oo.
In its 2006 country report, the AHRC referred to Burma’s courts and law-enforcement agencies as a “system of injustice”, and said that its judges share responsibility with its generals for “the demoralised state the country is in today”.
The report is available on line, at: http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2006/Burma2006.pdf
