re REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES - FRAN

[cd@xxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: re REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES - FRANCE

Dear Free Burma supporters, 
We are in regular contact with RSF in Paris and we would like to see them 
do more timely action-intervention regarding those in Burma suffering 
directly from curtailment of press freedoms and overt condamnation 
regarding slorc laws gagging the press. Please send Euro-Burmanet 
information if you have it regarding individuals and cases pending, 
writers, journalists in prison, tortured, and sadly killed or 
disappeared.
RSF has a $ 10 MILLION budget half of which is paid for by the European 
Union. 
Metta, 
Dawn Star
//http://www-uvi.eunet.fr/asia/euro-burma

Mon, 10 Jun 1996 18:28:54 +0200 
RSF2@xxxxxxxxxxx (REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES)
cd@xxxxxxx

Paris, 10 June 1996

Please find enclosed, as request, the protest letters we sent to the 
Burman government since the beginning of the year. David Dieudonné, Asia 
desk, RSF
______________________________________________________________________
His Excellency General Than Shwe
President State Law and Order Restoration Council
c/o Ministry of Defence
Signal Pagoda Road
Rangoon
Burma
______________________________________________________________________
Paris, 10 January 1996

Your Excellency,

Reporters Sans Frontières, a worldwide independent organisation working 
to defend press freedom, is gravely concerned for the health and safety 
of two journalists.

According to our information, Myo Myint Nyein, editor-in-chief of the 
cultural magazine What's Happening and Win Tin, both members of the 
National League for Democracy (NLD), have been subjected to severe 
ill-treatment since mid-November 1995.

In mid-November, prison officials began to interrogate Myo Myint Nyein, 
Win Tin and three other prisoners about letters which had been smuggled 
out of Insein Prison to Professor Yozo Yokota, the United Nations Special 
Rapporteur for human rights in Burma. 

The letters provided details about ill-treatment and poor conditions in 
the prison. Prison officials forced the five prisonners to sleep on 
concrete floors without mats or blankets in "military dog cells", small 
cells where military dogs are normally kept. The five have also been 
denied access to their families, usuallygranted every two weeks to 
provide them with food and medicine which are inadequate in the prison.

Reporters Sans Frontières calls on you to immediately stop the 
ill-treatment of Myo Myint Nyein and Win Tin and to provide them with 
proper medical care and access to their families. 

Moreover, the organisation points out that reprisals against those who 
provide information to representatives of United Nations human rights 
bodies are contrary to the UN Commission on Human Rights resolution 
1994/70. 

Finally, Reporters Sans Frontières calls for the immediate and 
unconditional release of Myo Myint Nyei and Win Tin who had not committed 
a crime punishable by such a prison term.

We thank you for your attention and would welcome your comments.

Sincerely,

Robert Ménard
General Secretary

C.C :
Burmese Embassy, Paris - French Embassy, Rangoon - AFP - AP - Reuter - 
Amnesty International - Article 19 - Canadian Committee to Protect 
Journalists - International Committee of the Red Cross - United Nations 
Commission on Human Rights - Committee to Protect Journalists - 
International Federation
of Human Rights - International Federation of Newspaper Publishers - 
International Federation of Journalists - Fund for Free Expression -  
Index on Censorship - International PEN - International Press Institute - 
International Organisation of Journalists - UNESCO - World Press Freedom 
Committee.

REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES
Sécrétariat international
5, rue Geoffroy Marie 75009 Paris - France
Tel: (33) 1 44 83 84 84 - Fax: (33) 1 45 23 11 51 - Email 

___________________________________________________________________________
His Excellency General Than Shwe
President State Law and Order Restoration Council
c/o Ministry of Defence
Signal Pagoda Road
Rangoon
Burma
___________________________________________________________________________
Paris, 16 April 1996

Your Excellency,

Reporters Sans Frontières, a worldwide independent organisation working 
to defend press freedom, wishes to strongly protest against the 
additional prison sentence imposed on two journalists.

According to our information, on 28 March 1996 Win Tin, former Hanthawati 
newspaper editor and Myo Myint Nyein, What's Happening magazine editor 
were given additional sentences of five and seven years respectively. 

They were found guilty of passing information  to Professor Yozo Yokota, 
the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in Burma about 
ill-treatment and poor prison conditions. 

The trial took place in camera in Insein Prison, were they are both 
serving sentences. 

They had no legal counsel during the proceedings, which is contrary to 
international fair trial standards.

Those sentenced may have been charged solely for exercising their rights 
to contact the outside world as provided for in Articles 37 and 39 of the 
UN Standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. 19 other 
prisoners were also sentenced on the same grounds and in the same 
conditions.

In a former protest, Reporters Sans Frontières called on you to 
immediately stop the ill-treatment of Myo Myint Nyein and Win Tin and to 
provide them with proper medical care and access to their families.

 Our organisation also called for the immediate and unconditional release 
of Myo Myint Nyei and
Win Tin, who had not committed a crime punishable by such a prison term.

We reiterate these requests, and point out that reprisals against those 
who provide information to representatives of United Nations human rights 
bodies are contrary to UN Commission on Human Rights resolution 1994/70.

We thank you for your attention and would welcome your comments.

Sincerely,

Robert Ménard
General Secretary

C.C :
Burmese Embassy, Paris - French Embassy, Rangoon - AFP - AP - Reuter - 
Amnesty International - Article 19 - Canadian Committee to Protect 
Journalists - International Committee of the Red Cross - United Nations 
Commission on Human Rights - Committee to Protect Journalists - 
International Federation
of Human Rights - International Federation of Newspaper Publishers - 
International Federation of Journalists - Fund for Free Expression -  
Index on Censorship - International PEN - International Press Institute - 
International Organisation of Journalists - UNESCO - World Press Freedom 
Committee.


REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES
Sécrétariat international
5, rue Geoffroy Marie 75009 Paris - France
Tel: (33) 1 44 83 84 84 - Fax: (33) 1 45 23 11 51 - 

Email rsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx