by Mungpi
Monday, 22 June 2009 22:32
New Delhi (Mizzima) – Twenty-one Burmese activists were briefly detained by Bangladesh police on Monday for holding a demonstration in front of the Indian Embassy in Dhaka demanding the immediate release of 34 Burmese rebels currently lodged in an Indian jail and facing trial.
The activists, who were later released in the evening, call on the Indian government to immediately release the 34 ethnic Karen and Arakanese rebels as they are ‘Freedom Fighters’ and not insurgents or gun-runners.
“We were calling for the release of the 34 Burmese Freedom Fighters in front of the Indian Embassy. We were shouting slogans but the police came and took us away,” Kan Myint, Secretary 2 of the All Arakan Student and Youth Congress (AASYC), the group organising the protest, told Mizzima from the police station.
The protest rally was conducted as part of the ‘Global Day of Action’ for the release of the 34 Burmese rebels, who were arrested by Indian authorities in February 1998. As part of the campaign, activists held demonstrations in Thailand, Bangladesh, Australia, Germany, Sweden and the UK.
The 34 Burmese rebels, members of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and National Unity Party of Arakan (NUPA), armed groups fighting against the Burmese junta, were arrested on Landfall Island of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands by Indian authorities during a joint military exercise known as “Operation Leech” in February 1998.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), acting as the prosecution, has charged the rebels for gun-running, but the rebels say they were tricked by an Indian intelligence officer who promised them a base in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in return for monitoring Chinese naval activities.
They were subsequently detained on Andaman Island for more than eight years without any legal charge-sheet filed. But in October 2006, after an appeal by human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar, the Supreme Court ordered a transfer to Kolkata and the conduct of a day-to-day trial.
On Monday, the court in Kolkata was supposed to have resumed the trial but Akshya Kumar Sharma, one of the defense counsels, said the judge instead adjourned court and fixed the next hearing for August 3.
According to the defense team, the 34 rebels, if found guilty, could be further detained and face deportation. Moreover, even if they are proved innocent, since they are foreigners they are still vulnerable to deportation unless granted asylum under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and accepted by a third country for protection.
Activists and campaigners have expressed concern that if they are deported to Burma it would be like sending them to the gallows to meet their end, and call on the Indian government to immediately release them and allow them to resettle in a third country.
“This global day of action is to call on the Indian government to end the trial, release the freedom fighters and allow them to resettle in a third country,” May Pearl Tun of the Karen Community Association UK said in a statement.
“Laws concerning terrorists should not be used against these people who have engaged only for their right of freedom for their country. This case is damaging India’s reputation. Today’s day of action is the start of a new global campaign for justice,” said the letter submitted by activists to Indian Embassies in six countries.
The Czech Republic and East Timor previously expressed their willingness to accept the freedom fighters into their countries.
Additional information contributed by Salai Pi Pi & Niang Boi
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
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