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BURMA: Young man allegedly tortured to death by police

January 24, 2007

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

24 January 2007

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UA-023-2007: BURMA: Young man allegedly tortured to death by police

BURMA: Extrajudicial killing; custodial death; torture; impunity; un-rule of law
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2006 AHRC ANNUAL REPORT: BURMA
http://material.ahrchk.net/hrreport/2006/Burma2006.pdf

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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received details from the Yoma-3 News Service (Thailand) and other sources of the alleged death in police custody of another young man in Burma due to assault. According to his wife, Maung Chan Kun was taken by the police from his family's house in the Irrawaddy delta region on January 10. The next morning the police informed the family that he was in the hospital. When they went there, they found him dead, with severe marks to the body, and an apparently fatal injury at the back of the head. The police have said that he died due to malaria. The family has now made complaints calling for justice to the national authorities. 

CASE DETAILS:
 
According to the information so far received, 20-year-old Maung Chan Kun and his wife Ma Chan Nyein Khaing eloped from Ma-Ubin to his parents' house in Dawnachan ward of Pantanaw town on January 5. After they arrived, they registered with the local authorities that they were staying as visitors in the ward, which is required by law in Burma.

However, around 12:30am on January 11, a group of eight police lead by Deputy Superintendent Soe Moe came to the house with a local government official and called Chan Kun for questioning purportedly in connection with the guest list, according to his wife. 

The next morning a police officer came to the house and told Chan Nyein Khaing that her husband was in the Pantanaw Township Hospital. When she went to the hospital she found her husband lying on his back upon a wooden bed frame in the cleaning room. His clothes were dishevelled and one arm was chained. He was already dead. There were injuries all over his body, in particular, an approximately one-inch-long hole at the back of the head from which blood emerged when his relatives moved his body to take it for autopsy, as no orderlies were around. There was also bruising from his neck to the backs of his ears, and on his face, sides and forearms. There was swelling on his right side.  

Burmese radio journalists who contacted the Pantanaw police station from abroad were told that Chan Kun was arrested because he had escaped from an army prison labour camp run by Light Infantry Battalion 304 in Thaton. This is denied by his wife. The police said that after he was brought to the station they had intended to send him to the Ma-Ubin Prison, but before that he had started to show symptoms of malaria so he was sent to the hospital. They denied that he was tortured or that he was chained while in hospital. Hospital personnel contacted said that they were not able to comment.

Many persons saw Chan Kun's body at the hospital, and photographs and other details have been recorded in addition to the official autopsy. On January 14, Chan Nyein Khaing lodged complaints with the national and division council chairmen, home affairs minister and police chief. However, according to the latest information obtained by the AHRC, she was denied an attempt to lodge a complaint in the Pantanaw Township Court.

Photographs of the victim's body in hospital may be viewed on the Yoma-3 website (text in Burmese). Please be informed that these photos are graphic and uncensored: http://yoma3.org/gallery/kochankwan.html


BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Unfortunately, most complaints of extrajudicial killing by police officers and other state officials in Burma end in failure. Among notable cases taken up by the AHRC have been:

Maung Ne Zaw: allegedly beaten to death in custody by Special Anti-drug Squad police; his mother fled to Thailand after constant harassment and threats due to her attempts to obtain justice (UA-222-2006)

Ko Thet Naing Oo: allegedly beaten to death by municipal officers and fire fighters in a public market; after his mother campaigned for justice, the police arrested and charged a group of innocent bystanders with his death (UP-064-2006, UP-060-2006, UA-097-2006)

Ko Aung Hlaing Win: allegedly tortured to death by military intelligence; his wife lodged detailed appeals in the courts on the irregularities in his case, including the non-return of her husband's body (whom the state claimed died of a heart attack), but these were summarily dismissed at all levels, most recently by the Special Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (UA-110-2005)

These are but a few of the many such cases going on in Burma. Remarkably, the key United Nations agency working on crime with an office in Burma, the UN Office on Drugs & Crime, in its 2005 country profile claimed that there are "not even anecdotal reports of murders, rapes or kidnappings" in Burma and that "crime does not appear to be a major concern among the population" there. Letters sent by the AHRC to the office raising questions about this assessment and offering details of serious crimes where the police and other state officers are the accused met with no reply (AHRC-OL-030-2006).

See further: AS-165-2006, AS-070-2006 and AS-015-2006.

See also the 2006 AHRC Human Rights Report chapter on Burma, and visit the AHRC Burma homepage: http://burma.ahrchk.net.  

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the Minister of Home Affairs and other concerned persons below calling for an immediate investigation into the alleged death in custody. Please note that for the purpose of the letter, the country should be referred to by its official title of Myanmar, rather than Burma, and Irrawaddy Division as Ayeyarwaddy Division.  

Sample letter:

Dear ___________,

MYANMAR: Alleged death of Maung Chan Kun on 11 January 2007 due to assault in custody by Pantanaw Township Police Station personnel

Name of victim: Maung Chan Kun (a.k.a. Maung Myint Thein), 20 years old, son of U Chit Htoo, resident of Dawnachan Ward, Pantanaw Township, Ayeyarwaddy Division (deceased)
Complainant: Ma Chan Nyein Khaing, wife of victim, daughter of U Chit Tin, 2nd year economics student (distance), Ma-Ubin Township, Ayeyarwaddy Division
Alleged perpetrators:
1. Police Deputy Superintendent Soe Moe and seven subordinates of the Pantanaw Township Police Station
2. Police Deputy Superintendent Htay Aung (duty officer in charge)
Date of incident: 11 January 2007
Place of incident: Pantanaw police lockup

I am writing to express my dismay at the news that a young man allegedly died after being assaulted by personnel of the Pantanaw Township Police Station, Myanmar Police Force, on 11 January 2007, and to seek your urgent intervention.  

According to the information that I have received, Maung Chan Kun and his wife Ma Chan Nyein Khaing travelled from Ma-Ubin to his parents' house in Dawnachan ward of Pantanaw town on January 5. After they arrived, they registered as visitors in the ward as required by law. 

However, around 12:30am on January 11, a group of eight police lead by Deputy Superintendent Soe Moe came to the house with the ten-household head and called Chan Kun for questioning. 

The next morning a police officer came to the house and told Chan Nyein Khaing that her husband was in the Pantanaw Township Hospital. When she went to the hospital she allegedly found her husband lying dead on his back upon a wooden bed frame in the cleaning room. She and many witnesses observed grave injuries to his body, in particular an approximately one-inch-long hole at the back of the head. There was also bruising from his neck to the backs of his ears, and on his face, sides and forearms. There was swelling on his right side.  

I am informed that personnel of the Pantanaw police have said that Chan Kun died due to malaria, of which he started to show symptoms after being held in the lockup. However, I find this claim incredible and unbelievable in view of the other details of the case that have been brought to my attention.

I am aware that the wife of the victim on January 14 lodged requests for justice with the Chairman of the State Peace & Development Council, Chairman of the Ayeyarwaddy Division Peace & Development Council, Minister for Home Affairs and the Director General of the Myanmar Police Force.

I sincerely urge you to ensure that these complaints are acted upon and call for an immediate investigation into this alleged assault with a view to laying charges of homicide under section 304A of the Penal Code against the perpetrators. At the same time, there should be preliminary and departmental inquiries to determine wrongdoing of all concerned persons with a view to laying further charges or taking other action as necessary against all state officials allegedly involved in the case.

The loss of a young person's life is a tragedy which is compounded further when no redress is forthcoming. I note with concern that most such complaints made against state officials in Myanmar are unsuccessful, not for want of evidence but because the concerned authorities are unwilling to act upon them. This is despite the fact that under Part III of the Citizen's Rights Protection Law 1975 (Parliamentary Act No. 2/1975), citizens are entitled to lodge complaints where they believe that their rights have been infringed.

I am aware that in recent times there have been a growing number of serious and substantiated allegations of deaths in custody in Myanmar. It is clear that this trend is causing growing alarm among the public which can only lead to greater instability, to the detriment of everybody. To address the trend it is necessary for you to give the public confidence that the authorities are acting to investigate properly and bring to an end such incidents through prosecutions and punishment of the alleged perpetrators, and by protection of witnesses and compensation for victims and their families.

Yours sincerely

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER TO:

Maj-Gen. Maung Oo
Minister for Home Affairs
Ministry of Home Affairs
Office No. 10
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: +95 67 412 040/ 069/ 072
Fax: +95 67 412 016/ 439

1. Lt-Gen. Soe Win
Prime Minister
c/o Ministry of Defence
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: + 95 1 372 681
Fax: + 95 1 652 624

2. U Aye Maung
Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
101 Pansodan Street
Kyauktada Township
Yangon
MYANMAR
Fax: + 95 1 371 028/ 282 449 / 282 990

3. Brig-Gen. Khin Yi
Director General
Myanmar Police Force
Naypyitaw
MYANMAR
Tel: + 95 1 549 196/ 228/ 209

4. Mr. Shariq Bin Raza
Representative
UN Office on Drugs and Crime
11A Malikha Road
Ward 7, Mayangone Township
Yangon
MYANMAR
Tel: +951 666 903/ 660 556/ 660 538/ 660 398/ 664 539
Fax: +951 651 334
E-mail: fo.myanmar@unodc.org, shariq.raza@unodc.org, camila.vega@unodc.org 

5. Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro
Special Rapporteur on Myanmar
Attn: Mr. Laurent Meillan
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: + 41 22 9179 281
Fax: + 41 22 9179 018 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR MYANMAR)
E-mail: lmeillan@ohchr.org

6. Professor Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Attn: Ms. Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016, c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS)

7. Prof. Manfred Nowak
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
Attn: Mr. Safir Syed
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9230
Fax: +41 22 9179016 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR TORTURE)


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)



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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.