18.06.2006
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DASSK is one of the Political Prisoners in Burma
Taisamyone
DASSK has spent 10 of the last 16 years under house arrest, without substantiated charges, trial or the opportunity of legal appeal. This is nothing less than crude political imprisonment of someone who represents freedom, democracy and the future of Burma. Around the world, prestigious organisations make celebrated awards, influential leaders praise DASSK; and they all roundly damn the junta for continuing its brutal suppression of freedom for DASSK and the people of Burma. DASSK is not the only political prisoner – there are around 50million political prisoners in Burma – the entire population are held captive by a terrorist organisation – the SPDC.
Totalitarian government and oppressive social control
Political imprisonment is used by those in power (it seems ludicrous to refer to the SPDC as a government, as they do not govern, they mis-govern) to silence anyone who does not accept what they want the people to believe. Totalitarian governments the world over use political imprisonment to silence dissent. Political Prisoners are not just the preserve of any one doctrine; Hitler’s Germany and Stalinist Russia became a byword for such behaviour in the middle of the 20th century; Pol Pot’s regime and communist China have taken over that place in the latter half, but there are still many countries around the world including Burma that use this form of repression. Slowly these totalitarian regimes are falling to the onward march of freedom and democracy; the people’s will is gained at the price of sacrifice and persistence.
What do these regimes hope to achieve; they are all seeking to impose their will on the people; they may have a party doctrine, a madman’s dictatorship, a central committee that wants its view of society impressed on the people – Burma has all of these! If the people don’t want it (I don’t know of any people around the world who want what their government want) then the regime locks up the dissenters. They are trying to impress their views on society and anyone who speaks against them, writes against them, or even thinks against them is a potential victim of their cruelty. These fascist regimes torture their victims in an attempt to extract information, to take out their own frustrations with dissent, to create fear in their victim – when or if they are allowing their freedom, the regime does want them to resume their past activities – it wants total loyalty to ‘Big Brother’, however that is established, whatever inhuman and brutal methods have been used to create a compliant and obedient people.
DASSK is alive and well and living in Rangoon
There has been conjecture of what will happen if and when DASSK dies, either through poison (a typically stupid method used by dictators since time immemorial) or through natural causes – any imprisonment takes it toll, albeit psychological. Although the average life expectancy for women in Burma is 64, DASSK may well exceed this as she is allowed to remain in her own home rather than be confined to a stinking cell in Burma’s notoriously awful prisons. When DASSK succumbs the people of Burma will mourn the loss and wish for a funeral befitting a heroine – fit for a martyr to the cause of independence from SPDC fascism, a martyr of the second revolution, following her father in the role of honour of those who have perished at the hands of the enemies of the people – whether colonialists, imperial aggressors, or the fascist military barbarities of the SPDC. In death, DASSK will become more powerful than she is alive; the junta will be incapable of controlling her; she will remain the focus of the freedom and democracy activity movement that she is today; an icon with which to galvanise the international community; the inspiration for future generations of Burma.
What about the other Political Prisoners?
There are approximately 1,156 Political Prisoners in Burma today. They are incarcerated for periods of imprisonment from a few months to over 100 years. Without exception they are charged with crimes that seem ludicrous to anyone on the outside. ‘Defamation of the state’ means saying what you think of the government. If this were enacted as a crime in any true democracy, most of the population would be behind bars. In Burma, as in other totalitarian regimes, this can earn you 10 years imprisonment. Holding a meeting with colleagues in which you wish to discuss politics and the political party you lead can be described by the junta as ‘insurrection’ – this can earn you 106 years in prison. The junta pick on their opponents and make up ridiculous charges, find the victims guilty in secret inequitable trials in which they are not given proper legal representation, and sentenced to imprisonment for as long as the junta chooses.
As well as targeting the political opposition, the junta also imprisons its own members. Those who fell out of favour with Than Shwe in the purges of Khun Nyunt’s Military Intelligence Service have been imprisoned, tortured and sentenced to lengthy sentences. This is the fate for anyone who gains too much power and who threatens the emperor’s position of power from within the organisation. The military have been using this tactic since they illegally seized power in 1962 and regularly purge those who fall from favour.
Doesn’t anyone know?
Amnesty International’s 2006 global report [ref1] on the abuses of human rights in 150 countries around the world had this to say about Burma: “governments in countries including Myanmar, North Korea and Viet Nam appeared to be largely impervious to pressure to uphold human rights. The authorities in Burma, for example, continued to violate human rights through widespread and long-term political imprisonments, forced labour, land confiscations and displacement of minorities, thereby showing utter disregard for the population and the international community.” AI maintain their regular reporting of the mis-use of law and remain concerned that prisoners of conscience continue to be arrested and imprisoned in Burma solely on account of their peaceful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly. They are a human legacy of the authorities’ long-standing misuse of the justice system as a tool of political repression, and a means to restrict rather than protect the peaceful exercise of basic human rights. The SPDC continues to abuse the justice system, impede the rule of law and the enjoyment of basic political freedoms in the country, and human rights in Burma generally.
In May this year, the AAPPB issued their report regarding the political prisoners in Burma [ref2], “The Death of Democracy Activists Behind Bars”. Since 1988, at least 127 democracy activists have died in custody; 90 of these deaths have been in the prisons, 8 in the interrogation centres, 4 in the labour camps and 10 shortly after release. Their companion report, ‘The Darkness We See’ [ref3], detailed the consistent reports of torture of political prisoners in Burma, the conditions of prison cells and the deliberately incompetent health care provided by the prison service. The report details the methods of torture used in detention centres; physical, psychological and sexual abuse. These methods have been used by the ‘tatmadaw’ since its inception, and reflect the methods used by all repressive regimes around the world. There are no new methods, just the numbingly grotesque and barbaric abuse of one human being by another. AAPPB call for urgent action by the UN Security Council, immediate changes in the actions of the SPDC to stop these senseless atrocities, and calls on NGOs to assist prisoners, their families to gain access, record abuse and on release to help recovery from trauma.
Despite these indictments of conditions for all prisoners in Burma, the SPDC continues to make access to inspection from the ICRC as difficult as possible. Prisoners are intimidated into accepting USDA visits instead of visits from the ICRC.
What can we do?
Our hearts may sink when we acquaint ourselves with the details of these crimes against humanity, but they are facts of every day life for our political leaders of the future and for many ordinary citizens of Burma. We know that house arrest is not an easy option, but can be our focus for action. In calling for the release of DASSK, we are calling for the release of all political prisoners. In calling for the release of political prisoners, we are calling for the release of DASSK. Freedom and pro-democracy individuals and organisations around the world are working to find a solution to Burma’s problems. Is the release of Daw Su Su Nway showing us a chink in the SPDC’s armour? If so, we must exploit it to the fullest. We must continue to exercise our freedom to help those who do not have theirs.
So far, the SPDC is using imprisonment and torture as a method of repressing the people and causing death from (unexplained) ‘natural causes’; when it starts to use the death sentence for every political case (such as thinking bad thoughts about the regime!), we will know that they have completely abandoned any claim to clemency from the world community for their crimes against every declaration of the United Nations, and have lost every ounce of humanity; they will have completed their descent into hell.
As a last word, I would like to invite all of our readers to support the numerous petitions calling for change in Burma; these are run by campaigners around the world; e.g. Burma Campaign UK, US Campaign for Burma, Burma Digest, and the Global Shan Community petition to Kofi Annan, members of the UN Security Council, ASEAN and those directly involved with the SPDC to press the SPDC to release Hkun Htun Oo and All Political Prisoners in Burma [ref4].
Quotations
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood"
(Article 1. UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/index.htm)
“You are taken to a small room where the torture begins. You are stripped naked and are beaten until you lose consciousness. You are awakened when your captors drench you with a bucket of water. The beatings begin again. This time a rod is run up and down your shins until you scream out in agony as your flesh peals off. Your captors are laughing and threatening to kill you and your family. You remain hooded and handcuffed, unable to defend yourself or move away. You are humiliated, made to pretend you are riding motorcycles and airplanes. You sit and stand continuously until you are exhausted, all the while being beaten. You are forced to hold unnatural positions for extended periods of time until you collapse. You are denied food, water, sleep and must beg to use the toilet. You are degraded, bruised and battered. Your entire existence is reduced to the struggle to survive. You are a political prisoner in Burma.”
(AAPPB – The Darkness We See, http://www.aappb.org/)
“The Secretary-General welcomes the release yesterday of Su Su Nway, who had been imprisoned in Myanmar since October 2005. The Secretary-General urges the Myanmar authorities to follow up this measure with further action that will alleviate the political atmosphere and promote national reconciliation, including the lifting of remaining restrictions on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political leaders.”
(Kofi Annan, 7th June 2006, UN Secretary General, http://www.un.org/News/ossg/sg/index.shtml)
References
1. Free Hkun Htun Oo, other Shan leaders and All Political Prisoners in Burma
http://www.petitiononline.com/fppb/petition-sign.html
Global Shan Community. Global.shan@yahoo.com
www.tai-nation.org, www.tai4freedom.info, www.taigress.info/petition1.htm
2. Eight Seconds of Silence: The Death of Democracy Activists Behind Bars
AAPPB, May 2006, http://www.aappb.org/
3. The Darkness We See : Torture in Burma’s interrogation centres and prisons.
AAPPB, December 2005, http://www.aappb.org/
4. Amnesty International Report 2006 : the state of the world’s human rights.
Amnesty International: http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/index-eng
Myanmar summary: http://web.amnesty.org/report2006/mmr-summary-eng
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