(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 9 May 2002 WAN and World Editors Forum (WEF) letter to the prime minister, Gen. Than Shwe: Sr. Gen. Than Shwe Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a 9 May 2002 WAN and World Editors Forum (WEF) letter to the prime minister, Gen. Than Shwe:
Sr. Gen. Than Shwe
Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Peace and
Development Council<br
C/o Permanent Representative to UN
Email: myanmar@un.int
9 May 2002
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to call on you to release journalist U Win Tin from jail immediately.
Following the ending of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest on 6 May, we urge you to release U Win Tin as the next step in the confidence-building process between the government and democracy advocates. U Win Tin, former editor of the daily newspaper Hanthawati, vice-chair of Myanmar’s Writer’s Association and founder of the National League for Democracy, was arrested in July 1989, tried in a closed military court and sentenced to 14 years in prison for allegedly being a member of the banned Communist Party of Myanmar.
During his 13 years in jail, U Win Tin has been severely beaten, held in solitary confinement for
almost one year and sentenced to an additional five years in jail for possessing writing materials. We understand that his sentence will only expire in July 2008.
It is our organisations’ view that the continued imprisonment and victimisation of U Win Tin
constitutes a deep blemish on the international standing of Myanmar which can only be erased by his release. We believe that his continued detention remains a barrier to peace in Myanmar and of great alarm to the international community.
Furthermore, the detention of U Win Tin constitutes a clear breach of his right to freedom of expression, which is guaranteed by numerous international conventions and we remind you that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights considers that ‘detention, as punishment for the peaceful expression of an opinion, is one of the most reprehensible ways to enjoin silence and, as a consequence, a grave violation of human rights’.
We respectfully call on your government to demonstrate strength, compassion and sincerity in the reconciliation process by releasing U Win Tin immediately.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Roger Parkinson
President
World Association of Newspapers
Gloria Brown Anderson
President
World Editors Forum
cc: Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations
Mrs Mary Robinson, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be sent to:
Sr. Gen. Than Shwe
Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Peace and
Development Council
C/o Permanent Representative to UN
E-mail: myanmar@un.int
Please copy appeals to WAN.
