What is AAPP?
Since the 1988 popular democracy movement was crushed in a ruthless crackdown by the military regime, thousands of people have been arrested, tortured and given long prison sentences for their beliefs and political activities. Even after political prisoners are released, they continue to face ill treatment. The military intimidates and harasses ex-political prisoners in order to prevent them from participating political activities. For example, on politically-sensitive occasions in the country - such as the anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising - ex-political prisoners are often re-arrested, interrogated and detained without reason. The military regime also attempts to isolate ex-political prisoners from society, for example by denying them economic and educational opportunities.
For these reasons, many ex-political prisoners are forced to live in exile. Many ex-political prisoners who spent many years in jail, and previously gave assistance to their fellow political prisoners, wanted to continue these activities. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) was founded by former political prisoners on 23 March 2000, the 11th anniversary of the arrest of 1988 student leader Min Ko Naing. AAPP is an independent, non-profit organization.
About Burma's political prisoners
There are currently more than 2,100 political prisoners in jails across Burma, including monks, students, elected members of parliament and lawyers. This is almost double the number prior to the Saffron Revolution in September 2007. Anyone can be detained for being involved in democracy activities and peaceful demonstrations. If you distribute one pamphlet, you could be sentenced to seven years with hard labour, without a fair trial. In October 2008, the regime began to sentence hundreds of activists to harsh prison terms of up to 104 years. In November 2008, the regime started to transfer political prisoners to jails all across Burma, making it very difficult for their loved ones to visit and provide essential food and medicines. The most high profile activists have been transferred to the most remote prisons, which is a new psychological strategy by the regime designed to cut them off from their family support system. In previous years, the most high profile political prisoners were held under tight security in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison.
Aims and objectives of AAPP
1. To report on the number of political prisoners held by the military regime, and on human rights violations carried out against them in various detention centers, prisons and labour camps.
2. To secure the support of governments and international organizations to put pressure on the Burmese military regime to stop the further persecution of political prisoners, and release them all.
3. To provide political prisoners with basic necessities such as food and medicine.
4. To protect political prisoners from harassment and intimidation by the military regime upon their release from prison, including when they are looking for employment, continuing their studies, associating with friends and colleagues, and especially to protect them from persecution if their political activities are resumed.
5. To aid in the reconstruction of ex-political prisoners' lives, including both their mental and physical well-being.
About AAPP’s activities
AAPP’s work inside Burma is focused on two areas:
- Collecting information about political prisoners and prison conditions.
- Giving assistance to political prisoners and their families, for example by providing food and medicines, or financial help to enable families to visit their loved ones in prison.
AAPP collects information in many ways, for example by sending regular messengers, by phone, mail, and the internet. As a result, AAPP has been able to compile a database of over 2,100 political prisoners. AAPP has a collection of over 200 photos of political prisoners, around 80 biographies of political prisoners and important information about prison conditions in a number of jails across Burma.
Since AAPP was founded in 2000, it has been able to provide help to hundreds of political prisoners, including emergency assistance for those with serious health problems. AAPP has also provided financial assistance to pay for the education of political prisoners’ children, and helped to meet the costs of medical care for former political prisoners.
AAPP's international work is focused on five areas:
- International advocacy and lobbying, via meetings with world leaders, high-level diplomats, UN staff and other influential figures.
- Publication of thematic human rights reports, in support of advocacy work - for example on torture, or the health situation in Burma's detention centres, labour camps and prisons.
- Media work - information releases, media statements, opinion editorials, and media interviews.
- Information sharing - AAPP shares its data and documentation with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN and other interested organizations.
- Campaigning - in 2009, together with Forum for Democracy in Burma, AAPP led a global petition campaign. It targeted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling on him to make it his personal priority to secure the release of all Burma's political prisoners. On 15 June 2009 677,254 signatures were personally delivered to Ban Ki-moon's office by a delegation of former political prisoners, human rights activists and family members of political prisoners. The signatures were collected in just ten weeks, in the largest coordinated global action for Burma to date.
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