Irrawaddy: - Shah Paung
A Thailand-based Burmese rights group on Monday called on the international community and the UN Security Council to address political and economic reforms in Burma.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) appealed to members of the UN Security Council—particularly the US, the UK, France, Italy and Indonesia—to take immediate action on Burma in a statement released on Monday.
The statement urged the Security Council to “discuss the situation in Burma immediately and to ask the UN Secretariat to brief the council on Burma and to take collective action to stop regime-sponsored violence in Burma once and for all.”
The AAPP also urged Burma’s ruling State Peace and Development Council to release all pro-democracy activists currently in detention “unconditionally and immediately.”
“We call on the regime to release the detainees recently arrested immediately and not to commit further unlawful arrests,” Tate Naing, the secretary of the AAPP, told The Irrawaddy on Monday.
During five days of demonstrations sparked last week by a sharp rise in fuel and commodity prices, an estimated 100 human rights activists and peaceful protesters were arrested by members of the pro-junta group Union Solidarity and Development Association and the paramilitary organization Pyithu Swan Arr Shin, according to the AAPP statement.
State-run The New Light of Myanmar, an English language daily newspaper, put the number of arrests at 63 in an article on August 25.
“We remind the SPDC that under international law, governments cannot commit torture under any circumstances, even ‘during a time of public emergency that threatens the life of the nation,’” the AAPP statement said.
Demonstrations against the fuel and commodity price hikes began on August 19, with leaders from the 88 Generation Students group and the National League for Democracy leading several protests in Rangoon and other major cities in Burma.
The peaceful protesters were met in several locations by USDA and other pro-government crowds, which attacked and detained some of the protesters, forcing them into trucks and taking them to unknown locations, according to sources involved in the protests.
“I am sure those arrested are now being tortured by the junta,” said Tate Naing, who spent more than four years in prison for his political activities. “We know from firsthand experience that those arrested in Burma are always brutally tortured—both physically and psychologically — immediately upon arrest,” he added.
Meanwhile, about 30 people in Pegu—about 80 km (50 miles) north of Rangoon—continued demonstrating against the fuel hike on Monday. Most of the participants were members of the local NLD office.
Plainclothes police watched the protest from a distance. The protesters were arrested by police about 30 minutes later and taken to the townships Peace and Development Council office, where they were questioned and released.
Reports emerged of another protest in Yenanchaung, Magwe Division, but The Irrawaddy could not contact protest organizers to confirm because their phone lines had been cut.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour released a statement on August 26 expressing concern over reports that student leaders and other protesters were being arrested. Arbour called on Burmese authorities to immediately release the detainees and engage in dialogue with demonstrators about their concerns.
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