amnesty international

MYANMAR Scores of activists detained

May 1996 AI INDEX: ASA 16/17/96 DISTR: SC/CO

Amnesty International is gravely concerned at the arrests of some 191 National League for Democracy activists (NLD, the opposition party founded by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi which won the 1990 elections) by the Myanmar authorities. The scale of these arrests is the largest to take place in Myanmar since the mass detentions in 1990.The current wave of arrests began on 20 May and at last report is still continuing throughout the country. Amnesty International has obtained the names of 91 of those who have been arrested, which are listed on the attached pages. The authorities have apparently not brought charges against members of the group, who are being detained at unknown locations around the country. It is likely that they are being held in incommunicado detention, which in Myanmar is a standard practice before political detainees are tried and sentenced. Torture and ill-treatment is also common in Myanmar during initial interrogation. Amnesty International is concerned about the well-being of the activists and seeks assurances from the Myanmar authorities that they have access to proper medical care, their families and lawyers. Most of those arrested are NLD members of parliament-elect who won seats in the 1990 general election; however at least five are not MPs. Tension in Myanmar has mounted recently between the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC, Myanmars military authorities) and the NLD. Attacks against the NLD in the government-controlled press have increased markedly. The NLD is planning a meeting of elected representatives at Daw Aung San Suu Kyis home to mark the sixth anniversary of its victory in the elections. The meeting is to take place from 26-29 May. The arrests have been widely seen as a pre-emptive attempt by the SLORC to prevent the meeting from occurring. Amnesty International believes that the activists have been arrested solely for planning to attend a political meeting. It regards them as prisoners of conscience, detained for attempting to exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and association and as such calls for their immediate and unconditional release. Amnesty International is further concerned about those NLD members or supporters who have not yet been detained but who are clearly at risk of arrest at any time. According to reports, the SLORC stated publicly on 23 May that the activists are being held for questioning and are not in fact imprisoned. The SLORC also stated that they were being treated well. The reason given for their detention was that they had taken a confrontational stance with regards to

the SLORC. It is unclear from government statements whether the activists will be released shortly or whether they will continue to be detained. This latest round of arrests suggests that nothing has changed in Myanmars human rights situation since the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on 10 July 1995. Although her release raised hopes for an improvement in the governments human rights practice and policy, the pace of political arrests has in fact accelerated since November 1995. Since November 1995, when the NLD withdrew from the SLORC-controlled National Convention, there has been increasing harassment of the party by the SLORC, including arrests of dozens of party members over the last six months. Many people have been detained for possessing videotapes of Daw Aung San Suu Kyis weekend speeches, others for writing a poem commemorating the death in custody of an NLD colleague, still others for satirizing the SLORC in an NLD-sponsored performance.

KEYWORDS: MASS ARREST1 / PARLIAMENTARIANS1 / PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE1 / POLITICAL ACTIVISTS / WOMEN / BANNING / ANNIVERSARIES / PRISONERS LISTS /

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