Military

PAKISTAN: A military coup is unfolding

in Pakistan, but, this time, there is no rumbling of tanks on the streets of Islamabad. Instead, it seems the military is using a new strategy for regime change in Pakistan, one that will have adverse consequences for Western troops deployed in Afghanistan. A year after rogue elements of Pakistan’s intelligence services disrupted Indian-Pakistani peace […]

PHILIPPINES: The Philippine Congress must revoke martial law in Maguindanao province

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is seeking your support in calling upon the members of the Philippine Congress to revoke Proclamation No. 1959, which has been signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and has declared a state of martial law in Maguindanao. It suspends the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and […]

PAKISTAN: Frontier Corp officers shoot a child; police obstruct the filing of the case

Dear friends, A seven-year-old girl was badly injured when members of the Frontiers Corp (FC), a para-military force fired indiscriminately at the car she was traveling in, in Hayatabad, Peshawar. One of her legs has had to be amputated and her second leg is badly fractured. Her uncle was also severely injured in the attack […]

INDIA: Encounter killings are exposed as murder in Assam, yet police refuse to investigate

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about the extrajudicial killing of two men by soldiers of the Kumaon Regiment, Assam. The men were reported to have been killed in an encounter incident, but they were in custody and had left notes hidden in their clothing that predicted their murder. The […]

INDONESIA: Police and soldiers burn houses and destroy resources in Papua’s Bolakme district

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) continues to receive reports of violence being wrought by soldiers and police against civilians in remote West Papuan villages. In the latest case a joint operation responded to an illegal flag raising by the banned Free Papua Movement with indiscriminate violence against civilians. Soldiers have reportedly burned […]

UPDATE (India): A human rights defender has been tortured in custody and remains at risk

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is distressed to learn that human rights defender and freelance journalist Jiten Yumnam has been tortured by police in custody. We have also obtained court documents which show that he and the seven other accused were arrested on mere suspicion and unsubstantiated allegations. The documents stand as […]

BURMA: Five men are charged without evidence for allegedly forming an illegal group

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained the details of yet another group of people in Burma who have been charged without evidence for alleged anti-government activities. Five young men have been accused of setting up an illegal group and trying to contact other groups based in Thailand. There is no actual […]

UPDATE (Burma): Further information on the imprisonment of Mar Mar Aye

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained further and more detailed information on the case of Ma Mar Mar Aye, on whose imprisonment we recently issued an appeal. According to this information, the primary reason for her imprisonment was not the T-shirts that the police removed from her house, as previously reported, […]

UPDATE (Burma): Two journalists among prisoners released from jail

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to inform you that two journalists who had been imprisoned in 2008 for helping cyclone victims to contact international agencies have been released from prison. CASE DETAILS: As per our appeal in April (AHRC-UAC-033-2009), 24-year-old Ma Eint Khaing Oo and 29-year-old Ko Kyaw Kyaw Thant, […]

BURMA: Woman imprisoned after one-day trial for having some T-shirts

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained information on another recent case of gross injustice and denial of fundamental rights in Burma, this time arising from possession of some T-shirts. Police arrested Ma Mar Mar Aye at her house in August after misleading her into thinking that she would come back home […]

BURMA: Monk falsely accused of planning to set fire to himself

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has obtained detailed information about the case of a monk in Burma who is being tried without evidence for insulting religion. The monk, U Sandadhika, went like other onlookers to the outside of the court where Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her co-defendants were being tried […]

BURMA: Four men tried for having stickers of Aung San Suu Kyi

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed of an ongoing case in Burma in which four men are being tried for having stickers of Aung San Suu Kyi. The men were arrested without basis and it was reportedly only after entering their houses that the police seized the stickers and accused […]

UPDATE (Burma): Three innocent men are tortured into confessing to a bomb plot

Dear friends,  Last year the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued an urgent appeal in the case of U Myint Aye, the leader of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters group in Burma whom police and other officials arrested without giving a reason. Later the military regime there organised a press conference in which it […]

BURMA: Two elected MPs given 27 years for writing letter to UN

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) regrets to have to inform you of yet another case of gross injustice and denial of human rights in Burma through that country’s “injustice system”. In this case, two elected parliamentarians have been sentenced to 27 years in jail each for organizing a group of their peers […]

BURMA: Licences of lawyers revoked for merely representing their clients’ wishes

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has previously reported on the case of two human rights lawyers who were sentenced to four months’ imprisonment each for contempt of court, because they withdrew their powers of attorney on the wishes of clients who cited the reason as a lack of faith in Burma’s judicial […]

BURMA: Case against Aung San Suu Kyi exposes ‘injustice system’

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been closely following the case against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and three other persons since their arrest in May 2009, which is a clear product of what has been described as Burma’s ‘injustice system’. In this appeal we give some basic details of the case […]

PAKISTAN: A student leader goes missing after his alleged arrest by state agents; a female student demonstrator is sentenced to three years in jail

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission has received information that a student activist has been arrested by members of a military intelligence agency, and his whereabouts are still unknown. Another female student has been fined and sentenced to three years in prison on sedition charges by the Anti Terrorism Court for heading a demonstration […]

BURMA: Journalist jailed on wrong charge for shooting video of referendum vote

Dear friends,  Last week the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) issued an appeal on the case of two journalists jailed in Burma for trying to help people left homeless after Cyclone Nargis to visit international agencies. In this appeal we bring the case of another journalist jailed in Burma, in his case for taking video […]

BURMA: Two journalists imprisoned for helping cyclone victims visit international aid groups

Dear friends,  In June 2008 after Cyclone Nargis devastated the Burma delta, a group of homeless residents went to request assistance from offices of international agencies in Rangoon. At that time, two reporters for local news journals went along with them. The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) in this appeal is bringing you details of […]

BURMA: Nine people convicted without admissible evidence over protests

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has closely followed and issued appeals on many of the cases that arose from the September 2007 nationwide protests against military dictatorship in Burma. Here we bring you details of a number of related cases that were among the large numbers of those decided late in 2008. […]