Bangkok Post - Reminders not to for

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Bangkok Post
July 12, 1998 

Reminders not to forget BURMA: A book is coming out to remind people not to
forget that the winners of the 1990 parliamentary elections in Burma are
still being harassed, threatened, tortured, and jailed by the military
government. 
AUNG NAING OO 

Dr Tin Min Htut, an elected Member of Parliament (MP) from Pantanaw town
ship Irrawaddy Division, was arrested on 19 February 1997 by the Burmese
military regime. His crime? Illegal possession of foreign currency. 

His real crime, though, was being an active leader of the National League
for Democracy (NLD).

Two coins in a cup: Prior to his arrest, the military summoned officials
from all departments of the town and asked them if Dr Tin Min Htut had
violated any law. 

When they could not find fault with him, the town police chief ordered his
men to find anything that could in criminate the MP. 

The police searched his house and found two Singaporean coins in a small
toy cup his son was playing with. Dr Tin Min Htut was then ar rested for
illegal possession of foreign currency and given a three-year sentence. 

Subsequently, his election win was revoked.

Height matters: Another NLD MP, U David Hla Myint, was imprisoned for
flying the NLD flag at the same height as the national flag.

For this offence the Election Com mission dismissed him as an MP and also
banned him from running in fu ture elections. 

Both Dr Tin Min Htut and U David Hla Myint are among 66 NLD MPs the
Commission has dismissed from Parliament. 

Through the Election Commission the military has dismissed from Par liament
all MPs who have been charged with an offence and had oth ers banned from
running in future elections.

More than eight years ago, the NLD won the 1990 election in a land slide
gaining 392 of the 485 seats much to the surprise of the then rul ing State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). 

Despite unprecedented freedom to campaign and financial backing from the
regime, the National Unity Party (NUP) won 10 seats only. 

However, the Burmese military junta, which now calls itself State Peace and
Development Council (SPDC), has continually refused to honour the election
results.

Doubtful draft: With the question of fresh elections called into consider
ation as the National Convention drafted a new constitution, the mili tary
junta has sought to secure a dom inant role in the future political sphere.


However, given the number of NLD delegates participating in the cur rently
postponed convention, the drafting of an acceptable constitution is very
much in doubt. 

There were only 88 NLD delegates at the Convention, representing just 12.5
percent of all 702 Convention delegates.

Furthermore, in the National Con vention, the military regime has proposed
a presidential system of government through direct election for the
presidency via an electoral college.

With this system of government it would be easier for the regime to con
trol election results; the military would dare not allow a popular vote for
the presidency as they know the result would not be favourable to them. 

The regime's preference for indirect election of key political posts such
as the presidency is merely to avoid a direct popular vote.

Draconian suffering: While the success of this objective by the regime
remains to be seen, MPs and other opposition members continue to suffer
under draconian laws. 

The courage of these men and wom en elected in 1990 election against such
tyranny must not be forgotten.

Following the election, the Slorc began a systematic campaign of re
pression against Members of Parliament from the NLD and other opposi tion
parties. 

As part of this campaign military leaders have banned political parties,
forced MPs to resign from office, dismissed MPs from Parliament, forced
them into exile, and even jailed or tortured them.

Over the past eight years the mili tary regime has particularly targeted
NLD MPs. 

Since the 1990 election the military junta has forced 112 MPs from office
or used the Election Commission to dismiss them. This represents more than
a quarter or 28 percent of the 392 NLD Members of Parliament that were
elected under the NLD banner.

The military has banned 83 political parties, leaving only 10 legal parties
in Burma today. 

Twenty of these banned parties had won seats in the election and a total of
48 opposition MPs have been affected by the ban.

Since the 1990 election the military has also jailed 78 MPs - all from the
NLD - two (U Tin Maung Win and U Hla Than) died in prison. 

At the moment, there are 42 NLD MPs who remain under detention in Burma for
their political activities.

As a result of threats and intimidation from the military junta, 20
opposition MPs - most of whom are from the NLD - have ben forced to flee to
Thailand, India and other countries. 

Many now work for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
(NCGUB).

These figures are just the tip of the iceberg. 

Many individuals have been rear rested many times, and there are many NLD
MPs who continue to be intimidated and harassed daily by military
authorities but who refuse to end their political activity or resign from
their political parties.

The many ways in which the mili tary regime has harassed and intimi dated
NLD MPs and members into resigning are too numerous to list but common
methods include banning the right to education, to medical care and the
right to travel not just for them but also for their families.

There is also the blocking of promotions, sacking of NLD members and
cancelling of the licenses of lawyers and doctors. 

NLD members and MPs are arrest ed and charged, those in government service
are forced to repay govern ment loans, evicted, or their houses and land
threatened with confiscation.

While in many of these cases the acts of harassment have been carried out,
the military regime has not had to go so far usually; repeated threats
alone have proven to be a very effective tool of intimidation. For the more
courageous, the consequences are heavier.

In one example, the authorities pressured an MP from Arakan State, U Maung
Kwin Aung, to resign from Parliament. He refused. He and mem bers of his
family were arrested and charged with criminal offences.

The Slorc has used a range of re pressive and arbitrary laws to gain
convictions against NLD MPs and other pro-democracy supporters. 

The 42 NLD MPs currently in pris on were charged under one or more of these
laws - all of which are in con travention of accepted standards of
international civil and political rights.

For instance, the 1950 Emergency Provision Act is widely used to clamp down
on NLD members and MPs. In May 1996, some 300 NLD members and MPs were
arrested under this act. 

The 1961 Restriction and Bond Act was originally intended to restrict the
movement of criminals but is now used to incriminate and place more
restrictions on the opposition mem bers. 

Citing this law, authorities take mugshots, fingerprint party members, and
force them to sign papers restrict ing their travel.

The military regime also makes use of the provisions of the 1975 State
Protection Act which the military re gime used to place Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi under house arrest for six years. 

The Penal Code Article 122(1) - also known as "high treason law" - carries
the maximum penalty of death and is used arbitrarily to restrict the NLD's
political activity.

Less than a year after the election, a number of NLD MPs had been charged
under Burma's high treason law for participating in meetings in Mandalay to
form a provisional gov ernment. They were given prison sen tences ranging
from 10 to 25 years. Many of these MPs remain in prison today. 

One of them, Dr Zaw Myint Maung from Mandalay, was sentenced to 25 years'
imprisonment and in 1996 was given an additional seven years for producing
a magazine in prison. He was also beaten and tortured by officers of the
Military Intelligence Service.

Another law that the military applies is that of the Official Secrets Act.
This affected recently the Ran goon MP Daw San San, one of the 15 women MPs
elected to parliament who is currently under detention and whose sentence
was increased from six to 25 years. 

Although she was released after serving two of her 20-year sentence during
an amnesty after her first ar rest in 1990, the military rearrested her for
alleged parole violation. 

She was rearrested for an interview with the BBC and for refusing to end
her political activity. In the inter view, she was critical of the regime.
She was charged under the Official Secrets Act.

The junta has never declared the election results null and void as this
would elicit international criticism. Instead the military regime used set-
ups, threats and intimidation, jail and torture which allows them to
quietly eliminate elected MPs from the politi cal sphere. 

It is estimated that more than 50 percent of NLD MPs have suffered some
form of intimidation from the military to prevent or discourage them from
taking an active role in politics. 

Most of these MPs are potential winners in future elections should they be
given a chance to stand for elections.

For some time now, the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) has
been compiling information on all the 485 MPs that were elected to of fice
in 1990. 

The details are being published in a new book by the ABSDF entitled To
Stand And Be Counted: The Suppression of Burma's Members of Parliament, a
reminder of the sacrifices made in the struggle for democracy and human
rights in Burma.

Meanwhile, the Burmese military regime continues to reject the NLD's call
for a substantive dialogue and continues to ignore the appeals and
resolutions of the United Nations.

In the light of all this, the task to pressure the military regime to recog
nise the results of the election has fallen on the shoulders of the people
of Burma and the NLD. 

Nevertheless, assistance from the international community and - par
ticularly - the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(Asean) are a great help and will hopefully continue.

Then the aspirations of the elected MPs for a new democratic Burma be
fulfilled and peace could returned to Burma.

*Aung Naing Oo is the foreign affairs secretary of the ABSDF (All Burma
Students' Democratic Front)