Mens nogle politiske fanger er sat fri, gør aktivister gældende, at nye til gengæld så blot bliver tilbageholdt – det er især gået ud over et muslimsk mindretal, der har sat sig op mod centralmagten i det overvejende buddistiske og hidtil så tillukkede land i Sydøstasien.
BANGKOK, 24 October 2013 (IRIN): Human rights activists and the UN special rapporteur on Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, hailed the Burmese government’s release of 56 prisoners of conscience through presidential amnesty in early October, but lament (beklager) the continued detention of 135 political prisoners and hundreds of Rohingya activists (et etnisk muslimsk mindretal).
“Last month [I found out] that the Rohingya detainees were tortured for one to two months constantly, and they are still in jail,” Quintana told IRIN in his native Buenos Aires in September.
The continued imprisonment of hundreds of Rohingya men in Buthidaung prison, 300 km from the Rakhine capital Sittwe, remains a major impediment (hindring) to developing sound protection of political rights in the newly formed democracy since 2011, said Quintana.
He visited western Burma’s conflict-torn Rakhine State in August 2013, and was presenting his findings to the UN General Assembly in New York Thursday.
“Ongoing arbitrary (vilkårlige) detention is a blight (plet) on Burma’s political progress… There is nothing remotely democratic about the government’s practice of arresting dissidents,” said Matthew Smith, the executive director of Fortify Rights, a Geneva-registered human rights watchdog in Southeast Asia.
Local news sources report an estimated 1.000 Rohingya are still detained (of the original 1.158), according to Human Rights Watch in Burma.
This has been taken place since communal violence broke out between Buddhists and Muslims in June and October 2012, while peaceful protesters of hydropower and mining developments nationwide face the risk of arrest for speaking out about land confiscation, according to campaigners.
Prisoners released, arrests continue
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/98989/call-to-halt-political-detentions-in-myanmar
Se også interview med Quintana på
http://www.irinnews.org/report/98988/interview-with-un-special-rapporteur-on-human-rights-in-myanmar
