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Introduction
In mid-November 1995, the authorities at Insein Prison in Rangoon
raided the cells of 22 political prisoners. Following the raids
the prisoners were interrogated, and some were beaten, tortured
and held in tiny cells usually kept for prison dogs.
Among these prisoners were prominent journalist U
Win Tin, magazine publisher Myo Myint Nyein, and National League
for Democracy (NLD) parliamentarians U Hla Than and Dr. Zaw Myint
Maung, both of whom won seats in the 1990 election.
As a result of the raids the prison authorities alleged
they seized 'seditious' material that was 'damaging' to the SLORC
regime. These magazines included pro-democracy magazines, short
stories and poems; Time and Newsweek magazines; transcripts of news
items from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Voice of
America (VOA) and Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB); and letters to
Aung San Suu Kyi, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
and the United Nations.
Each of the 22 prisoners was subsequently charged
under Section 5 (E) of the 1950 Emergency Provision Act (see Appendix
III) for writing and distributing allegedly false information. If
found guilty of this charge a person can be jailed for up to seven
years and receive a fine. The law states that to receive a conviction
a person must either know that the information distributing was
not correct, or there must be enough evidence to show the information
was not correct.
Among the materials seized was a letter to former
Special Rapporteurs to Burma Professor Yokota, which contained information
about conditions inside Insein Prison. Insein is the oldest and
also the largest of Burma's 36 prisons, and is the country's most
notorious in terms of human rights abuses. Nearly all of Burma well
known political prisoners have spent some time there. The trail
of these 22 prisoners was held inside Insein Prison.
The prisoners were refused access to legal counsel
at the trail and they defended themselves. All 22 prisoners pleaded
not guilty to the charge brought against them, either on the grounds
that what they had written was the truth or that the charge was
false. As a statement to their courage the prisoners spoke out against
the authorities, complaining of torture and beatings in prison,
and calling for prisoners' rights and for access to legal counsel.
Some also accused the authorities of holding the political trail
and criticized the handling of the trail and the presentation of
the evidence.
This case was specifically mentioned in an interim
United Nations report on human rights in Burma as an example of
the denial of freedom of expression in prisons. The report, complained
by the UN Special Rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights,
Judge Rajsoomer Lallah, stated that '20 prisoners' were 'allegedly
tried and given additional sentences of 5 to 7 years' (see Appendix
I). However, according to the official report of the trail, translated
here, 22 prisoners were tried and they all received a additional
seven years with hard labor.
Since the trail, U Hla Than has died in custody. His
death certificate states that he died of pulmonary tuberculosis.
His request to be allowed to die at home was rejected reportedly
because he refused to resign from the NLD. The other 21 political
prisoners are still being held in Insein Prison.
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