Statement on the Creation of ASEAN Human Rights Body to Combat Abuses in Burma

Date: 31 July 2007

We have learned that the ten member countries of the Association of South East
Asian Nations, ASEAN, reached an agreement on 30th July, 2007, to set up a
regional human rights commission in order to deal with and solve human rights
issues in the region. We, the members of the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners (Burma), (AAPPB), recognize that such an agreement to set up
a regional human rights commission will bring good opportunities to monitor
human rights violations and abuses, and support this agreement as a positive
prospect for people in Burma. This agreement is sorely needed as human rights
abuses continue unchecked throughout Burma.
On the same day of the agreement, 30th July, 2007, a private teacher from
Prome, Bago Division, Min Min was sentenced to three years imprisonment plus
30,000 kyat fine because he let members of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
(HRDP) have a human rights training at his place.
Furthermore, Myint Naing, a member of HRDP and five villagers who attended the human rights training were sentenced to long-term imprisonments on 24th July
2007. HRDP Members visit villages around Burma and educate people about human
rights through human rights seminars and help protect the victims of human
rights violations.
On 18 April, 2007, members of HRDP, Maung Maung Lay and Myint Naing were beaten by members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a regime supported group of police and township administrative servants near Oat-Pon village, Hinzada township, Irrawaddy Division while they were distributing the universal declaration of human rights. They were hospitalized in Rangoon General Hospital as emergency cases for over ten days.
There are many more cases in which the regime arrests, oppresses and imprisons many rights-based activists who demonstrate because of high commodity prices, and who initiate discussions about worker rights. These activities and reactions
clearly demonstrate that the regime not only violates human rights but also
severely cracks down on human rights activists.

We, the members of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma),
(AAPPB), genuinely hope that the emergence of a regional human rights commission
can bring effective protection for victims of human rights violations inside Burma.
We believe that by exercising excessive use of power, the regime is
intentionally challenging the international community's condemnations.

For that reason, the AAPPB also deeply urges the upcoming ASEAN human rights commission to ensure certain rights such as freedom of collecting information,
freedom to perform any human rights, and actions for human rights violators.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)

For more information, please contact:

Tate Naing: (+66) 81 287 8751
Bo Kyi: (+66) 81 324 8935