(Mizzima/IFEX) – The following is a statement from Mizzima News, an interim member of IFEX: For over two weeks, military authorities have detained without charges eight people who organised a pubic literacy seminar in the town of Paungtalei. The eight members of the organising committee were arrested by military intelligence officers after the completion of […]
(Mizzima/IFEX) – The following is a statement from Mizzima News, an interim member of IFEX:
For over two weeks, military authorities have detained without charges eight people who organised a pubic literacy seminar in the town of Paungtalei.
The eight members of the organising committee were arrested by military intelligence officers after the completion of a seminar in a Buddhist monastery in Paungtalei on 8 February 2007. Writer Ko Tar and cartoonist Orpikweh addressed the seminar audience.
Six people, including Min Kyi and Myint Oo, were arrested by military intelligence just two hours after the seminar concluded and two more people, Maw Si and Naing Oo (a) Tote Gyi, were picked up later.
They are all in detention in the Minkyitaung military intelligence camp near Pyi. According to politicians in Rangoon, they were arrested under the Emergency Provision Act.
Some reports have suggested that the detainees were sentenced to three months in prison, but Myint Thein, the spokesperson for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) who is monitoring the situation, could not confirm this.
“So far as I know, they have not been sentenced yet. They are currently being detained in a military security camp called Sitlone in Mingyitaung”, Myint Thein said.
Moreover, he rejected the local Union Solidarity Development Association’s accusation that the detainees are members of the NLD. “The lead organising committee members of that literacy seminar, Maw Si and Naing Oo, are not members of the NLD,” he said.
The authorities denied having granted permission for the literacy seminar, which was supposed to be held in its usual venue of Paukkhaung but which, on this occasion, was relocated to nearby Paungtalei.
“This proves that there is no respect for human rights in our country. We should have the right to speak openly and the right to organize such events. Literature opens the eyes of people. It won’t work if they (the military) see everything only from the point of view of ‘security’,” he added.
