Military Junta Continues Crackdown, Political Prisoners Increase: AAPP

by Mizzima News
Thursday, 31 January 2008 00:00

New Delhi - World body United Nations estimate of 31 deaths and 74 people missing in Burma following the brutal crackdown on monk-led protests in September is far from accurate, an activist group said today.

UN Human Rights Expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who visited Burma in November to investigate the brutal crackdown on the monks and people, has found very little to go upon, as he was given limited access to all the places he wanted to visit, according to the Thailand based Assistance Association of Political Prisoners – Burma (AAPP-B).

"UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Mr. Pinheiro, failed to yield any real results," said Tate Naing, Secretary of the AAPP-B adding, "He did not get to visit the places he wanted to but was only allowed to go to the places which were well prepared by the junta before his visit."

The AAPP-B in its statement released today said, the Burmese military junta has substantively arrested and detained more people in connection with politics in 2007 than the previous years.

During 2007, at least 706 people have been added to the more than one thousand political prisoners already languishing in prisons across Burma, the AAPP-B said.
"There are currently at least 1864 political prisoners in Burma, not including all the cases of detention since the crackdown," AAPP-B said.

Even as the Burmese military junta has constantly maintained a tight grip on dissidents by arresting them at the slightest provocation, the August and September protests saw the largest number of activists being arrested, the AAPP-B said.

"Most of the detainees have been arrested during the August and September uprising and till today the crackdown has not stopped as more activists are still being arrested," Tate Naing said.

The AAPP-B also revealed that the junta used several education facilities and stadiums as make-shift detention camps, in order to accommodate the large number of detainees taken into custody during the monk-led protests.

"In Burma, nearly all activists are arrested without warrant and held for varying

lengths of time in detention. They are denied access to legal counsel and in most cases are unfairly tried and sentenced," the AAPP-B said.

According to the AAPP-B, many activists have been charged with criminal acts and sent to labour camps. "Those detained in the September 2007 protests still await their sentences from a corrupt and unjust legal system," the organization revealed.

"The junta arrests anybody who they see as a threat in order to hold on to power," said Tate Naing adding that the junta was continuing its rampant crackdown on dissidents.