CRACKDOWN at LETPADAN - Excessive Force and Violations of the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Expression

ဖော်ပြချက်/အကြောင်းအရာ: 

Executive Summary: "On March 10, 2015, following a weeklong standoff in the town of Letpadan in Myanmar?s Bago Region, police officers violently cracked down on a group of approximately 200 protesters demonstrating against the recently passed National Education Law. Several days prior to the crackdown, the police imposed a blockade on the protesters and prevented them from continuing their march to Yangon. On March 10, after tension escalated during the morning, police officers charged into the group with batons drawn and severely beat unarmed protesters and bystanders. At the time of writing, the Government of Myanmar has taken no known disciplinary or criminal action against police officers involved in the excessive use of force at Letpadan. The police arrested 127 protesters, journalists, and bystanders in Letpadan on March 10 and physically and verbally abused individuals in police custody. At the time of writing, 77 men and women arrested in Letpadan face charges that carry sentences of up to nine years and six months imprisonment. Fifty of those arrested remain behind bars. Some student leaders face multiple counts of the same alleged violation under a law regulating assemblies. Fortify Rights and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic (hereinafter ?the Clinic”) interviewed 25 eyewitnesses to the events of March 10 and analyzed more than 500 photographs and 40 videos taken during the protest and crackdown in Letpadan. Many police officers who employed excessive force in Letpadan are clearly identifiable in these photographs and videos, and eyewitness testimonies implicate several commanding officers. International law protects protesters? rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Myanmar authorities violated these protesters? rights by ordering them to disband, enforcing a blockade to prevent them from continuing their march to Yangon, and imposing unjustifiable and unnecessary restrictions on their protest activities. During the crackdown, police officers beat unarmed protesters while disbursing them as well as individuals after they were taken into police custody. These actions constitute an excessive use of force in violation of international law and standards. Finally, the ongoing detention and prosecution of individuals targeted solely for exercising their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression is arbitrary and violates international law..."

ရင်းမြစ်: 

Fortify Rights; Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic

Date of Publication: 

2015-10-00

Date of entry: 

2015-10-10

Grouping: 

  • Individual Documents

အကြောင်းအရာ/အမျိုးအစား: 

Language: 

English

မှတ်တမ်း: 

ပုံစံ: 

pdf

အရွယ်အစား: 

4.63 MB