Special Focus Cases
Ma Khin Khin Leh, Prisoner of Conscience
MYANMAR
 Ma Khin Khin Leh, © Private |
As any parents might, Ma Khin Khin Leh and her husband may have hoped for a better future for their young daughter. But the actions of the military government had mainly brought hardship to the people of Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma. So Ma Khin Khin Leh, a school teacher, and her husband Kyaw Wunna, a student activist, helped to plan a peaceful demonstration to be held in the town of Bago on July 19, 1999, to protest government policies and to show support for the National League for Democracy (NLD), the political party headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Although the NLD had won an overwhelming majority of the seats in national parliamentary elections in 1990, the military authorities refused to honor the election results, and instead jailed scores of political activists, including many of those newly elected to the parliament.
Days before the Bago demonstration was to take place, authorities moved to prevent it. Failing to find Kyaw Wunna, security agents arrested Ma Khin Khin Leh and the couple’s three-year-old daughter. Although her daughter was released after spending five days in detention, Ma Khin Khin Leh, then age 33, was eventually transferred to Insein Prison in the capital of Yangon. On December 3, 1999, the Insein Special Court sentenced her to life imprisonment under vaguely-worded security legislation. Even by the normally harsh standards of “justice” meted out by Myanmar’s military government, the life sentence given to Ma Khin Khin Leh was extreme.
Ma Khin Khin Leh (pronounced “Mah Kin Kin Lay”) is believed to be held in Insein Prison, where she reportedly suffers from an unspecified lung problem, rheumatoid arthritis and dysentery. Amnesty International is concerned for her safety and well-being.
Authorities in Myanmar have justified the imprisonment of hundreds of students, politicians, doctors, lawyers, housewives, farmers and others on the basis that they were seeking to cause "unrest.” Such arrests have been made possible by laws that allow an excessively wide interpretation of what constitutes a threat to security.
Amnesty International seeks the immediate and unconditional release of Ma Khin Khin Leh and all prisoners of conscience in Myanmar.
BACKGROUND
Myanmar’s authorities have detained thousands of people since 1988, the year when demonstrations against one-party rule resulted in security forces killing hundreds of protesters. People from all walks of life, including journalists, students, teachers, lawyers, nuns, monks and farmers, are serving long prison sentences for acts of peaceful dissent. Many of them are in poor health and have suffered torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Many others have died in detention or prison. In July 2005, the government freed over 200 political prisoners, but more than 1,000 others remain imprisoned.
Authorities regularly use broad security laws, such as the 1950 Emergency Provisions Act, to prosecute people for peaceful political and religious activities. Trials of political prisoners fall far short of international fair trial standards. Although military tribunals were abolished in 1992, the civilian judiciary is not independent from the military authorities.
Violations have occurred in the areas of economic, social and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights. Myanmar’s military has exploited tens of thousands of ethnic minority civilians by confiscating their land, stealing their crops and livestock, extorting money, and seizing people, including women and children, for forced labor. A third of all children in Myanmar suffer chronic malnourishment, according to United Nations data.
