PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-PL-004-2006

BURMA: AHRC launches webpage on jailed human rights defender

(Hong Kong, January 30, 2006) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on Monday launched a bilingual webpage dedicated to jailed Burmese human rights defender Ma Su Su Nwe.

The webpage contains links to appeals, statements, press releases, and other information in English and Burmese on the case of the 34-year-old villager who was jailed in a vengeful action by local authorities after she had won an unprecedented victory in a complaint of forced labour.

"This webpage will serve as a useful resource and a constant reminder about the struggle for justice of this extremely courageous villager," Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based regional rights group, said.

"Ma Su Su Nwe's case stands as a serious challenge to the Burmese judicial system, which is in all respects under the control of the military authorities," Fernando said.

Su Su Nwe was jailed for 18 months last October 13 on charges of criminal intimidation after complaints lodged by local officials.

She was immediately sent to prison and has reportedly been denied medicines for a chronic heart condition.

Successive appeals against the sentence have been rejected by lower courts. The case is due to be taken up by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

"A great many people, both within Burma and internationally, are watching the progress of this appeal," Fernando said.

"Its success or failure will speak to the integrity of the entire Burmese judicial system and prospects for the making of complaints about fundamental rights violations in that country," he added.

Despite serious intimidation, Su Su Nwe won her complaint of forced labour against four officials of the Tanmanaing village tract local council in Rangoon Division on January 31, 2005.

The convicted officials served eight-month jail terms. 

Forced labour was prohibited in Burma in 1999; however, the practice continues to be widespread and until this case there had been no successful prosecutions. 

Su Su Nwe has repeatedly said that she has acted not for herself but for the people of Burma.

The AHRC highlighted her case in its 169-page annual report, The State of Human Rights in Ten Asian Nations: 2005, which was released on January 17.

"The role of the courts in Ma Su Su Nwe's case speaks to what has been rightly called the 'un-rule of law' in Burma," the AHRC report says.

In December the AHRC called on Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, to suspend Burma from the U.N. Human Rights Commission, stating that its government has shown "no sincerity in its dealings" with the U.N., which it has instead treated with "polite contempt".

The Ma Su Su Nwe webpage can be accessed at: www.ahrchk.net/susunwe.

In October last year the AHRC released a similar page on disappeared Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, at www.ahrchk.net/somchai.

That page has since received widespread attention and become an important stage for continued advocacy on that case of landmark importance for the situation of human rights in Thailand.

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About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.