Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from the Yoma-3 news service, Thailand about the illegal jailing of a villager in Burma in relation to a farmers’ petition submitted to the authorities opposing the forced production of paddy. The villager, Ko Sein Win, was summarily sentenced to one-and-a-half years in prison for having an illegal lottery ticket in his possession. However, the real reason that he was jailed is believed to be because he organised the petition against government orders for farmers to produce dry season paddy.
Please write to the attorney general of Burma to protest against the denial of due process rights to Ko Sein Win, and urge that farmers in the country be given the freedom to make their own decisions regarding the planting of crops and their sale.
Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
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DETAILED INFORMATION:
Victim:
1. Ko Sein Win, 48, residing in Nonechaung village, Magu village tract, Bogalay township, Irrawaddy division
Alleged Perpetrators:
1. Deputy Superintendent Kyaw Soe, Kyeinchaung Police Station, Bogalay township
2. Constable Soe Hlaing, Kyeinchaung Police Station, Bogalay township
3. Nonechaung village section administrative committee head and members
4. People’s Militia members
5. U Thein Htun Aung, Chairman, Bogalay Township Court
6. U Win Myint, Chairman, Bogalay Township Peace and Development Council
Ko Sein Win is a villager of Nonechaung who according to a local source had organised a petition with 60 farmer’s names stating to the authorities that they did not want to grow the compulsory dry-season paddy crop. This is believed to have caused considerable irritation among the local authorities, because the Bogalay township chairman, U Win Myint, previously obtained an award for his work in increasing dry-season paddy production in Mawkyun township. Therefore, it is also believed that the local authorities strongly resented Ko Sein Win and have wanted to take revenge on him.
According to the information received, on the morning of 1 December 2004, Ko Sein Win was passing by the ward office of the Magu Village Tract Peace and Development Council (the local office of the ruling military council) at Kyonesein No. 2 Ward, when he was called inside. There he found Deputy Superintendent Kyaw Soe and Constable Soe Hlaing of Kyeinchaung Police Station, with the Nonechaung village section administrative committee head and members, and members of the People’s Militia, a civilian paramilitary organisation with security responsibilities. They searched Ko Sein Win but could not find any documents or other materials with which to accuse him of wrongdoing. However, they found the stub for playing an illegal lottery. On this ground, they arrested him.
The following day, December 2, Ko Sein Win was sent before the Bogalay Township Court. He was given no opportunity to defend himself or have a lawyer present. The chief judge of the court, U Thein Htun Aung, sentenced him to one-and-a-half years in jail for having the lottery ticket.. The day after that, December 3, Ko Sein Win was sent to the Pyapon Prison.
According to other information available, the Bogalay chairman U Win Myint has also stated that he will eradicate the opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD) from the township. Ko Sein Win is a member of the NLD. Additionally, during the early morning hours of December 6, 13 other NLD members were arrested for attempting to organise a National Day celebration. Ten of the arrested persons were taken from their houses between two and four a.m. They were the township chairman, U Aung Khin Boe, the township secretary, U Aung Htay, the additional secretary, U Khin Maung Chit and three township committee members: U Thet Htun, Daw Mi Mi Sein, and Daw Khin Lay. The other four were ward or village committee members: Daw Hnin Hsi, Ko Nyein Htun, U Tin U and Ko Saw Panku. The other three persons taken at daytime were all members of the township organising committee: Ko Aung Myint, Ko Win Naing and U Hla Myint. All the persons have been charged under national security regulations and are currently under trial inside the Pyapon Prison.
The arrests come at a time that the government has been releasing thousands of prisoners from jails after admitting that the now defunct national military intelligence service may have committed ‘irregularities’. However, only a few of the persons released so far have been prisoners of conscience. Meanwhile, the head of the service and former prime minister, General Khin Nyunt and all of his staff and associates have either been arrested or sacked from their jobs pending corruption inquiries.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
It is clear from the description of the arrest of Ko Sein Win that the authorities had planned to jail him on some grounds, and had perhaps expected that he would be carrying documents that could link him to ‘illegal’ activities. The lengthy jail term for an illegal lottery ticket is an absurdity. In Burma, virtually every household plays illegal lotteries of one kind or another, including members of the local authorities themselves. In fact, the whole illegal syndicate system goes on with the knowledge of government officials, and the local agents are well-known, as they have to go around the streets and people’s houses to conduct their trade. So the arrest of Ko Sein Win for the lottery ticket is just a pretext to get him in jail when no other means was available.
In fact, his arrest on one day, trial the next and jail the day after speak strongly to the ‘un-rule of law’ in Burma. During the year, the AHRC has released a number of appeals on similar arrests and flawed judicial procedures. See for instance: UA-21-2004, UA-40-2004, UA-111-2004 and UA-112-2004.
The dry-season paddy programme that Ko Sein Win had organised a petition against is deeply unpopular in Burma. It is a holdover from the socialist era that ended in 1988, under which farmers were subjected to government directives on what to grow, when, where, and how much to give to the government under a quota system. Despite many government announcements in recent years stating that the system has been changed, farmers are still being forced to grow dry-season paddy crops and give quota paddy to the authorities. The dry-season paddy is mainly unpopular because it requires too many inputs to grow for too little yield, and is therefore not worth the effort for the farmers, who prefer to grow a different kind of crop (such as peanuts or beans) at this part of the year. For details on the programme, see the earlier Voice of the Hungry Nation report published by the AHRC, in particular, the section on Rice under the Scope of Inquiry, and the findings on Paddy Procurement.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the attorney general to express concern over the jailing of Ko Sein Win, and demand that he is given due legal process. Please also urge that farmers be given the freedom to make their own choices about what crops to grow and how to sell them. A suggested letter follows. Please note that for the purposes of this letter, the country should be referred to as Myanmar, rather than Burma.
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Dear Dr Tun Shin
Re: Case of Ko Sein Win in Bogalay Township Court on 2 December 2004
I am deeply concerned by the information that I have received indicating that a villager in Bogalay Township, Ko Sein Win, was sentenced to one-and-a-half years in jail on 2 December 2004 for having an illegal lottery ticket.
According to the information I have received, Ko Sein Win, a resident of Nonechaung village, Magu village tract, Bogalay township, was detained at the ward office of the Magu Village Tract Peace and Development Council at Kyonesein No. 2 Ward on the morning of December 1. The arresting officers were Deputy Superintendent Kyaw Soe and Constable Soe Hlaing of Kyeinchaung Police Station. Also present were the Nonechaung village section administrative committee head and members, and members of the People’s Militia. They arrested him after searching him and finding only a lottery ticket stub.
The following day, December 2, Ko Sein Win was sent before the Bogalay Township Court. He was given no opportunity to defend himself or have a lawyer present. The chief judge of the court, U Thein Htun Aung, sentenced him to one-and-a-half years in jail for having the lottery ticket. The day after that, December 3, Ko Sein Win was sent to the Pyapon Prison.
From the information I have received, it appears that the authorities in Bogalay township were intent upon arresting Ko Sein Win because he had earlier organised a petition with 60 farmer’s names stating to the authorities that they did not want to grow the dry-season paddy crop. The chairman of the Bogalay Township Peace and Development Council, U Win Myint, is known to have been awarded for his work increasing dry-season paddy production in Mawkyun township. It follows that his arrest and imprisonment were motivated by revenge.
Under any circumstances, Ko Sein Win was not given the opportunity to defend himself in court as required by law. Therefore, I urge you to investigate this case and see to it that he be given his due process rights without delay.
Finally, I urge the Government of Myanmar to end its coercive practices towards farmers without delay. Despite public statements in recent times that there would be reforms to the paddy production and procurement system to permit farmers to make their own decisions about what to grow and how to sell it, this does not appear to have been the case. The fact that villagers face retribution for attempts to assert their economic rights speaks to the failure of the government to implement the said reforms. However, without changes in the management of this system it is unlikely that Myanmar will progress and its people secure their fundamental rights to food and good health.
Yours sincerely
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
Dr Tun Shin
Director General
Office of the Attorney General
101 Pansodan Street
Kyauktada Township
Yangon
MYANMAR
Fax: + 95 1 371 028 / 282 990 / 282 449
PLEASE SEND COPIES TO:
1. General Soe Win
Prime Minister
c/o Ministry of Defence
Signal Pagoda Road
Yangon
MYANMAR
Fax: + 95 1 652 624
2. Maj-Gen Maung Oo
Chairman
Myanmar Human Rights Committee
c/o Ministry of Home Affairs
Corner of Saya San Street and No 1 Industrial Street,
Yankin Township
Yangon
MYANMAR
Fax: +95 1 549 663 / 549 208
3. Mr. Paulo Sergio Pineheiro
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
c/o Ms. Hulan Tsedev
Room 3-090
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
Palais Wilson,
Rue des Paquis 52, Geneva
SWITZERLAND
Tel: + 41 22 9179 281
Fax: + 41 22 9179 018
email: htsedev.hchr@unog.ch
4. Mr. Leandro Despouy
Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers
Att: Sonia Cronin
Room: 3-060
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9160
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
E-mail: scronin@ohchr.org
5. Ms. Hina Jilani
Special Representative for human rights defenders
Att: Ben Majekodunmi
Room 1-040
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 93 88
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
E-mail: bmajekodunmi@ohchr.org
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commissin (AHRC)
