Burmese Lawyer Flees, Speaks Out

A Burmese lawyer now in exile says authorities tortured evidence out of his clients.

Photo: AFP/ Armed security forces march down the streets of Rangoon during a crackdown on anti-government protests, Sept. 27, 2007.

BANGKOK—A Burmese lawyer who fled to Thailand to avoid jail after representing 11 anti-government protesters has said authorities tortured evidence from his clients that was used to convict them in connection with a bombing earlier this year.

“In this case, Yan Shwe, Zaw Zaw Aung, and U Myint Aye were arrested by police, and were mentally and physically tortured to obtain evidence that they had committed the crime,” Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min told reporters in Thailand.

“Evidence obtained in such a manner by the police was then used in court. In that case, I examined five witnesses before I fled the country,” he said, having fled to Thailand after weeks in hiding from the Burmese authorities.

Yan Shwe, Zaw Zaw Aung, and Myint Aye were sentenced last month in Rangoon’s Northern District Court to life in prison for allegedly planting a bomb in the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) office in the city’s Shwe Pyitha township. The device exploded July 1 but no one was killed or injured in the blast.

The USDA is a government-sponsored social welfare group that serves as a civilian proxy for military interests. Members of the opposition say the USDA is often mobilized to put down anti-government protests.

The state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said Myint Aye had funded the bombing and Zaw Zaw Aung and Yan Shwe carried it out. The newspaper also said Burmese exiles in Thailand had also helped finance the attack.

Burma's courts have sentenced more than 200 political and labor activists, bloggers, journalists, and Buddhist monks and nuns to lengthy jail terms in recent months.

Flight to avoid jail

Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min, 28, worked as a lawyer in Rangoon, where he defended 11 members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

In October, the Hlaing Thaya township court in Rangoon sentenced him to six months in prison for contempt of court after he failed to intervene when his clients turned their backs on the judge to protest the manner in which they were being questioned.

Three of the defendants also sought to call Information Minister Gen. Kyaw Hsan as a witness, Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min said at the time, prompting another call from the judge for the lawyers to control their clients.

Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min and another lawyer, Nyi Nyi Htwe, appeared in court Oct. 23 with their clients, 11 youths who had staged a protest march in Rangoon on May 15 in which they wore t-shirts calling for the release of detained opposition leader Aun San Suu Kyi.

“The main reason I had to flee the country is that the authorities charged me under Penal Code 228,” or contempt of court,” Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min said.

“I was ready to face and defend the charges in court. As a matter of fact, I did go to court Oct. 27 to defend those charges, but they postponed the proceedings until Oct. 30. But then they issued orders and tried to arrest us on Oct. 29,” he said.

“That is why I became convinced that our legal system doesn’t have any trace of justice, and therefore I completely lost faith and trust in the system, and so I fled the country.”

“I can see that handing down long-term sentences to young students like Sithu Maung and Ye Myat Hein is intended to cut short the continuance of the next generation of young politicians. I can also see that giving long-term jail sentences to the 1988 generation of politically active leaders is intended to stop all political activities prior to the 2010 elections, which are to be organized by the government.”

Nyi Nyi Htwe, along with lawyers Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein, was arrested and sentenced to terms of four to six months in prison on the same charges.

Legal hurdles

In a written statement made available to reporters, Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min described the difficulties facing lawyers who represent political prisoners.

The authorities, he said, often delay approval for lawyers to represent prisoners; keep security officers in the room when lawyers and clients meet; fail to inform lawyers of court dates; direct judges, prosecutors, and prosecution witnesses; and improperly redact court records and transcripts.

New York-based Human Rights Watch, citing Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min’s account, sharply criticized Burma’s legal system and called for high-level intervention by Burma’s neighbors.

“The government locks up peaceful activists, sends them to remote prisons, and then intimidates or imprisons the lawyers who try to represent them," Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said.

"This abuse of the legal system shows the sorry state of the rule of law in Burma."

The New York-based organization, citing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Charter which entered into force Dec. 15, urged ASEAN to dispatch “an eminent independent legal team to monitor the trials and conditions of activists held in isolated prisons.”

Original reporting by Moe Kyaw for RFA’s Burmese service. Translated by Soe Thinn. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Burma’s nuclear temptation

ANALYSIS: —Bertil Lintner

All that is certain is that Burma has a nuclear programme. It may be years, if not decades, away from developing nuclear-weapons capability. But the fact that the country’s military leadership is experimenting with nuclear power is cause for concern

Over the past year, Southeast Asia’s diplomatic community has tried to sort fact from fiction in a stream of unconfirmed reports from Burma, the region’s most isolated and secretive country. Burma’s fledgling nuclear programme with Russian assistance and its mysterious connections with North Korea raise concern in the region about its purpose.

According to Burmese exiles in Thailand, the Russians and North Koreans assist the Burmese in developing nuclear capability. But wary of similar reports by Iraqi exiles a few years ago, which turned out to be false, the international community remains sceptical. In a research paper for Griffith University, for example, Australian scholar Andrew Selth dismisses the reports.

Nevertheless, certain facts are not in doubt. Burma first initiated a nuclear research programme as early as 1956, when its then-democratic government set up the Union of Burma Atomic Energy Centre, UBAEC, in then-capital Rangoon. Unrelated to the country’s defence industries, it came to a halt when the military seized power in 1962. New power-holders, led by General Ne Win did not trust UBAEC head Hla Nyunt.

In February 2001, Burma’s present junta, the State Peace and Development Council decided to revitalise the country’s nuclear programme, and Russia’s Atomic Energy Ministry announced plans to build a 10-megawatt nuclear research reactor in central Burma. In July 2001, Burma established a Department of Atomic Energy, believed to be the brainchild of the Minister of Science and Technology, U Thaung, a graduate of Burma’s Defence Services Academy and former ambassador to the United States. US-trained nuclear scientist Thein Po Saw was identified as a leading advocate for nuclear technology in Burma.

At a press conference in Rangoon on January 21, 2002, Vice-Chief of Military Intelligence Major-General Kyaw Win issued a statement: “Myanmar’s consideration of building a nuclear research reactor is based on the peaceful purposes getting modern technologies needed for the country, availability of radioisotopes being used peacefully, training technicians and performing feasibility study for generation of electricity from nuclear power.”

While Burma suffers from chronic power shortages, the need for a research reactor, used mainly for medical purposes, is unclear. Radioisotopes allow imaging of the brain, bones, organs, lungs and blood flow, advanced technology for Burma’s basic health services.

However, observers pointed out the Russian-made nuclear-research reactor that the Burmese authorities sought to acquire is similar to the 5-megawatt research reactor that the then–Soviet Union installed at Yongbyon in North Korea in 1965, from which North Korea later extracted plutonium for a nuclear device. Burma’s military leaders couldn’t help but notice how North Korea stood up to the US, a harsh critic of the Burmese regime, mainly due to its nuclear programme.

Reports have been murky since. In April 2007, days after the restoration of diplomatic ties between Burma and North Korea — broken since North Koreans detonated a bomb in Rangoon in 1983 — a North Korean freighter, the Kang Nam I, docked at Thilawa port. Burmese officials claimed that the ship sought shelter from a storm. But two Burmese reporters working for a Japanese news agency were briefly detained when they went to the port to investigate, indicating possible other, more secret reasons for the visit.

According to the July 2007 issue of the Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based publication by Burmese exiles: “by a strange coincidence, the 2,900-ton North Korean cargo vessel MV Bong Hoafan...sought shelter from a storm and anchored at a Burmese port last November. The Burmese government reported that an on-board inspection had ‘found no suspicious material or military equipment’. But journalists and embassies in Rangoon remained sceptical.”

At about the same time, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported “a North Korean ship under US surveillance was believed to have unloaded self-propelled artillery at a Myanmar port.”

The deal with Russia was stalled for several years, but in May 2007, Russia’s atomic energy agency, Rosatom, announced construction of the nuclear-research reactor. According to Rosatom, the reactor would use low-enriched uranium, not plutonium. Up to 350 Burmese nationals, most military personnel, trained in Russia under the initial 2001 agreement, and since then several hundred more trained at Russian institutions.

Signatories of the agreement reached in Moscow on May 15, 2007 were U Thaung and Rosatom head Sergey Kiriyenko. According to Rosatom’s press release: “The sides have agreed to cooperate on the establishment of a centre for nuclear studies in the territory of Myanmar (the general contractor will be Atomstroyexport). The centre will comprise a 10-megawatt light water reactor working on 20 per cent-enriched uranium-235, an activation analysis laboratory, a medical isotope production laboratory, silicon doping system, nuclear waste treatment and burial facilities. The centre will be controlled by IAEA.”

Despite that claim, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on May 17, 2007, that Burma had not reported plans to build a nuclear reactor. As a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Burma is required to allow inspections of any nuclear facilities. The agreement does not mention North Korea, but in November 2003, the Norway-based broadcasting station Democratic Voice of Burma, run by Burmese exiles, reported that 80 Burmese military personnel had departed for North Korea to study “nuclear and atomic energy technology”.

The report remains unconfirmed, its source unclear. If Burmese military personnel travelled to North Korea, it’s more likely for training in maintenance of missiles, which Burma then wanted to buy from North Korea but could not yet afford.

Alarm bells rang in August 2008, after India withdrew permission for a North Korean plane to fly over its airspace en route to Iran, just before taking off from Mandalay in Burma where it had made a stopover. The Il-62 carried unidentified cargo, and its destination after the stopover was unclear.

Reports of some cooperation between Burma, Russia, North Korea and Iran have also come from two Burmese nationals, an army officer and a scientist, who recently left the country. According to them, a Russian-supplied 10-megawatt research reactor is being built, at Myaing, north of Pakokku, said to be for peaceful research. But according to the defectors, another facility exists south of the old hill station of Myin Oo Lwin, formerly known as Maymyo. Three Russians supposedly work there while a group of North Koreans are said to engage in tunnelling and constructing a water-cooling system. The defectors also assert that in 2007 an Iranian intelligence officer, identified only as “Mushavi”, visited Burma. Apart from sharing nuclear knowledge, he reportedly provided advice on missile systems using computer components from Milan.

Burma has uranium deposits, and the Ministry of Energy has identified five sources of ore in the country, all low-grade uranium unsuitable for military purposes. But defectors claim that two more uranium mines in Burma are not included in official reports: one near Mohnyin in Kachin State and another in the vicinity of Mogok in Mandalay Division. The ore is supposedly transported to a Thabeikkyin refinery, conveniently located between the two alleged mines.

Until such reports can be verified, or refuted, speculations remain. But a nuclear-powered Burma would be a nightmare for all neighbours and would upset the balance of power in the region. All that is certain is that Burma has a nuclear programme. It may be years, if not decades, away from developing nuclear-weapons capability. But the fact that the country’s military leadership is experimenting with nuclear power is cause for concern. —YaleGlobal

Bertil Lintner is a Swedish journalist based in Thailand and the author of several works on Asia, including Blood Brothers: The Criminal Underworld of Asia and Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan.

UN Chief Criticizes Burma for Lack of Democratic Progress

VOA News, 18 December 2008

Ban Ki-moon

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has criticized the Burmese government for not following through on its promises of advancement towards democracy.

At a year-end news conference Wednesday, Mr. Ban said Burma has failed to engage in democratic dialogue and release its political prisoners.

The United Nations has repeatedly called on Burma to release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 13 of the past 19 years, as well as all other political prisoners.

Also Wednesday, the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch said testimony from a lawyer who recently fled Burma illustrates how the government locks up and imprisons peaceful activists, and intimidates and jails lawyers.

The group said Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min, a 28-year-old lawyer from Rangoon, fled to Thailand several days ago, after spending weeks in hiding. Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min said he was ordered to jail in October after he failed to intervene when his clients turned their backs on their judge in a protest.

The judge sentenced the lawyer and the clients to prison for contempt of court.

Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min learned of the charges beforehand and went underground. He and several other lawyers were representing 11 members of the opposition National League for Democracy at the trial.

Human Rights Watch says the opposition NLD members were sentenced to four to six months in prison for turning their backs on the judge.

In a crackdown that started in October, human rights groups say Burma has sentenced more than 200 dissidents to prison terms ranging from less than a year to 68 years.