HRW Report: Secretary Of State Clinton New Statement On Burma

Burma: Clinton Should Press for Release of Burmese-American

Arrests Continue, More Than 2,100 Political Prisoners Remain in Lead-up to Elections

December 18, 2009
(New York) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should publicly call for the release of imprisoned Burmese rights activist and US citizen Kyaw Zaw Lwin, currently on trial in Burma on politically motivated charges, Human Rights Watch said today. Zaw Lwin is in poor health partly due to a hunger strike begun on December 4 to protest the conditions of political prisoners in Burma.

Since the US unveiled its new Burma policy, touted as “pragmatic engagement,” in September, there has been no progress towards political reconciliation between the Burmese military government and the democratic opposition, and few if any political prisoners have been released. Two senior State Department officials, Kurt Campbell and Scot Marciel, visited the country in November. However, no senior US official has yet called publicly for Zaw Lwin’s release.

“Burma’s continued detention of a US citizen doesn’t bode well for the new US policy,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Obama administration should call loudly for Zaw Lwin’s immediate and unconditional release.”

A congressional letter sent this week has been signed by a bipartisan group of 53 members of the US House of Representatives. The letter urges Burma’s leader Than Shwe to immediately release Zaw Lwin.

Zaw Lwin, age 40, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, had been working for the Free Burmese Political Prisoners Now campaign in Thailand. His mother and two cousins are serving lengthy prison terms in Burma for participating in the peaceful demonstrations in 2007.

Burmese authorities arrested Zaw Lwin at Rangoon International Airport on September 3. He was initially accused of national security violations, but was later charged with holding a forged Burmese national identity card, despite being the holder of a US passport. He is also charged with failing to declare foreign currency at customs, although authorities arrested him before he passed through customs.

Zaw Lwin had regular consular access by US embassy officials. This stopped once Zaw Lwin started his hunger strike on December 4. He was last granted consular access on December 3, despite repeated requests from the US embassy to visit him. Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, “consular officers shall have the right to visit a national of the sending State who is in prison, custody or detention, to converse and correspond with him and to arrange for his legal representation.”

Human Rights Watch has long reported on egregiously unfair trials in Burma. Zaw Lwin’s trial in Insein prison in Rangoon has been closed to the public, though a US consular representative has been permitted to attend. On December 11, the court postponed proceedings due to “health reasons.”

Human Rights Watch expressed concern that the US government has been silent on the Zaw Lwin case, after having spoken out publicly about John Yettaw, the American who swam to democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s residence earlier this year. As a result of Yettaw’s actions, he, Suu Kyi, and her two housemaids were all jailed and faced criminal charges. Suu Kyi was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison, though Burma’s leader Than Shwe later commuted the sentence to 18 months under house arrest. In August, Clinton said, “We also call for the release of more than 2,000 political prisoners, including the American, John Yettaw.”

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