Home / News / Urgent Appeals / BURMA: Man disappears after dispute with government official

BURMA: Man disappears after dispute with government official

December 17, 2010

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-179-2010

17 December 2010
---------------------------------------------------------------------
BURMA: Man disappears after dispute with government official

ISSUES: Forced disappearance; impunity
---------------------------------------------------------------------

AHRC 2010 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT: BURMA
GOVERNMENT BY CONFUSION & UN-RULE OF LAW
http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2010/

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received details of a case of a man who disappeared after a dispute with a government official in the east of the country. Although the case has been reported to the police and other authorities, no action has been taken against the person suspected of orchestrating the disappearance, and almost a year the whereabouts of the disappeared man remain unknown.

CASE NARRATIVE:

According to the information received by the AHRC, at about 8pm on 3 January 2010 a group of four armed men kicked open the door on the home of U Shay Reh in Loikaw, Karenni State, and forcibly took him away with them. He has not been seen since, and although his relatives promptly informed the police and other authorities, there has been no action on the case.

The abduction and disappearance of Shay Reh followed a dispute over the question of marriage between his daughter and the son of a government official, U Ri Reh. Shay Reh's 22-year-old daughter had become pregnant by Ri Reh's son, and as only a few months remained before the birth of the child, her family had pressed for the two to marry. However, in November 2009 Ri Reh came to meet Shay Reh, to try to negotiate compensation for the childbirth instead of arranging marriage. After Shay Reh refused to negotiate, Ri Reh allegedly said that someone would have to die rather than have the couple get married. In December the young woman sent a letter to the state women's affairs committee to ask for assistance in the matter, and it was shortly after that that her father was abducted. 

The family of the abducted man is convinced that his abduction was connected to the dispute over the marriage, and that Ri Reh and family used their connections to get members of a local ceasefire group to carry out the abduction.

Further details of the case are provided in the sample letter below as usual.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Anecdotally, there are many cases of alleged forced disappearance in Burma, particularly in the border regions; however, in only a small number of cases do sufficient details emerge with which to construct a narrative and call for strong interventions. For an earlier similar case in which the AHRC issued an appeal see UA-226-2007. In that case, in which the victim was allegedly abducted by army personnel, from what the AHRC has been able to establish the government conducted a superficial inquiry and absolved their own men from responsibility, acknowledging the disappearance but blaming it on insurgents active in the area.

To browse hundreds of other Burma-related appeals issued by the AHRC, go to the appeals homepage and type "Burma" or "Myanmar" into the search box http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/.

The AHRC Burmese-language blog is updated constantly for Burmese-language readers, and covers the contents of urgent appeal cases, related news, and special analysis pieces.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the persons listed below to call for an investigation into the case of U Shay Reh. Please note that for the purposes of the letter Burma is referred to by its official name, Myanmar, and Karenni State as Kayah State.

Please be informed that the AHRC is writing separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar; the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, and the regional human rights office for Southeast Asia calling for interventions into this case.

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear ___________,

MYANMAR: Man abducted and disappears after dispute with government official

Details of victim: U Shay Reh, father of Lee Mya, resident of Pankan Village Tract No. 1 (South), Loikaw Town, Kayah State

Details of alleged perpetrators: U Ri Reh, Chairman, Dawbuku Village Tract, Dimawsoe Township, and son, Maung De Reh, clerk, Phyaphyu Village Tract Peace and Development Council; members of the Naga Ceasefire Group

Date of incident: 3 January 2010, around 8pm

I am writing to inform you of a case of alleged forcible abduction and disappearance perpetrated by members of a ceasefire group at the behest of a government official in Loikaw, Kayah State, almost a year ago. To date, the victim's whereabouts remain unknown and the authorities concerned have failed to take action.

According to the information that I have received, at about 8pm on 3 January 2010 a group of four armed men kicked open the door on the home of U Shay Reh in Loikaw, Karenni State, and forcibly took him away with them. He has not been seen since.

The abduction and disappearance of Shay Reh followed a dispute over the question of marriage between his daughter and the son of a government official, U Ri Reh. Shay Reh's 22-year-old daughter had become pregnant by Ri Reh's son, and as only a few months remained before the birth of the child, her family had pressed for the two to marry. However, on 29 November 2009 Ri Reh came to meet Shay Reh, to try to negotiate compensation for the childbirth instead of arranging marriage. After Shay Reh refused to negotiate, Ri Reh allegedly said that someone would have to die rather than have the couple get married. On 30 December 2009 the young woman sent a letter to the state women's affairs committee to ask for assistance in the matter, just before her father was abducted.

The family of the abducted man is convinced that his abduction was connected to the dispute over the marriage, and that Ri Reh and family used their connections to get members of the Naga Ceasefire Group to carry out the abduction. According to information I have received, a brother of Ri Reh is also a township council chairman.

The relatives of the disappeared man promptly notified the police at the township and district stations. Shortly after they notified the area army commander for Loikaw, chairman of the state, district and township councils, the state police chief, and the commanders of the Special Branch and Criminal Investigation Divisions in Loikaw. Despite this, to date their efforts have yielded no fruit and the disappeared man's whereabouts and circumstances remain a mystery.

In light of this information, I strongly urge the national authorities in Myanmar to initiate an investigation into this incident at once and uncover what happened and who was responsible. I am aware that in many parts of the border regions in Myanmar there are armed groups operating under ceasefire agreements as quasi-official security forces; however, the peculiar circumstances of the case and place in which this event occurred cannot absolve state personnel of responsibility, especially since the alleged mastermind of the abduction is a government official, as are other members of his family, and since the authorities at a variety of levels in the state were promptly informed of the abduction yet apparently failed to act upon the information supplied.

Yours sincerely,

----------------

PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Maj-Gen. (Retd.) Maung Oo
Minister for Home Affairs
Ministry of Home Affairs
Office No. 10
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: +95 67 412 079/ 549 393/ 549 663
Fax: +95 67 412 439

2. Lt-Gen. (Retd.) Thein Sein
Prime Minister
c/o Ministry of Defence
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: + 95 1 372 681
Fax: + 95 1 652 624

3. Brig-Gen. Khin Yi
Director General
Myanmar Police Force
Ministry of Home Affairs
Office No. 10
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: +95 67 412 079/ 549 393/ 549 663
Fax: +951 549 663 / 549 208

4. U Myat Ko
Secretary of Myanmar Human Rights Group
Director-General, General Administration Department
Ministry of Home Affairs, Naypyitaw
MYANMAR

5. U Kyaw Tint Swe
Representative of Myanmar to the ASEAN
Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights
2300 S Street, N.W. Washington D.C. 20008
Tel: (202) 3329044, 3329045, 3329049
Fax: (202) 352 9046


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (ua@ahrc.asia)

 

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-179-2010
Countries :
Issues :
Document Actions
Share |
Subscribe to our Mailing List
Follow AHRC
Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.