The junta’s objective is better mobilization of light infantry troops and other lines of strategic defense such as artillery forces, air defense forces and missile forces, a source said.

“Like the the North Korean army, the junta wants the ability to deploy its forces, including multiple launch rocket systems, canons and air defense units, quickly to the front line. Then all would be re-deployed to bases in tunnels and caves,” said the source. “That’s why the junta is upgrading its vehicle depot forces.”

Sources said the junta upgraded its Motor Vehicle Depot Battalions in October 2009 to achieve the ability to rapidly deploy troops. The upgraded vehicle battalions are reportedly based in Shwe Taung in Pegu Division, Shwe Nyaung in southern Shan State, Taung Dwin Gyi in Magwe Division, Amarpura in Mandalay Division and Mingaladon in Rangoon Division.

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Merger of Two Junta-Backed Groups Undercuts Genuine Participation

(New York, July 19, 2010) – The merging of Burma’s largest government-controlled social welfare organization into the army’s recently formed political party is clear evidence that the planned 2010 elections will not be legitimate, Human Rights Watch said today.

On July 6, the military government permitted the mass-based Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), with more than 24 million nominal members nationwide, to dissolve itself and transfer its assets and offices to the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). The USDP was formed by Prime Minister Thein Sein and 26 senior military officers and ministers on April 29, when all resigned their military commissions in order to contest elections scheduled for sometime in 2010. It is not known if all USDA membership lists will also be transferred to the USDP.

“The morphing of Burma’s largest mass-based organization with the military’s political party is a brazen if predictable distortion of the electoral process,” said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The future of military rule is being shamelessly scripted and played out before our eyes.”

Burma’s military government formed the USDA in September 1993 and registered it as a social welfare party in order to skirt restrictions on civil servants being members of political parties. The publicly stated aims and objectives of the organization were exactly the same as those of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). In the past 17 years, the USDA has recruited between 24 and 26 million members, often using coercive or corrupt methods such as ordering civil servants and all teachers to join, registering high school students without their knowledge, and intimidating whole communities to sign up en masse at government orchestrated rallies. USDA branches, present in every township (sub-district administrative units), are reportedly now being re-branded as USDP offices.

Human Rights Watch said the military junta has long used the USDA for partisan political purposes. Mass demonstrations by USDA members have been conducted throughout the country since the mid-1990s, where members give speeches denouncing the political opposition, the United States, the International Labor Organization, and extolling the virtues of the SPDC. The USDA’s main patron is Burma’s Senior General Than Shwe. Its secretary general is the minister for agriculture and irrigation, former army general U Htay Oo.

The USDA was implicated in violent attacks on Aung San Suu Kyi, a leader of the opposition National League for Democracy, in 1996 and 1997. It led mob violence against a National League for Democracy motorcade in the town of Depayin in May 2003, which left scores dead. As documented by Human Rights Watch, during peaceful demonstrations in August and September 2007, USDA cadres were used to harass and intimidate protestors and were part of the security forces’ violent crackdown on Buddhist monks on September 26-28, 2007.

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Humanitarian Space Across Country Again Narrowing Ahead of 2010 Polls

(Bangkok, April 29, 2010) – The Burmese government continues to deny basic freedoms and place undue restrictions on aid agencies despite significant gains in rehabilitating areas devastated by Cyclone Nargis two years ago, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

Human Rights Watch called for renewed international pressure on the Burmese government to gain the release of imprisoned local aid workers and other political prisoners, and to ensure humanitarian aid reaches the entire country.

“Two years after one of the world’s worst natural disasters, local aid workers still feel the brunt of continued repression by the military authorities,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Intense international pressure pushed the military government to open the door to foreign aid agencies, but Burma’s generals have kept it shut for domestic critics, many of whom remain in prison for speaking out for fellow citizens in need.”

The 102-page report, “‘I Want to Help My Own People’: State Control and Civil Society in Burma after Cyclone Nargis,” based on 135 interviews with cyclone survivors, aid workers, and other eyewitnesses, details the Burmese military government’s response to Nargis and its implications for human rights and development in Burma today. The report describes the government’s attempts to block assistance in the desperate three weeks after the cyclone, which struck Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta on May 2, 2008, and the concerted response from increasingly assertive Burmese civil society groups to overcome government restrictions to providing assistance. The report details continuing violations of rights to free expression, association, and movement against Burmese aid workers and their organizations by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).

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“Without rice,” said Mu Naw, “we cannot live.”

But on Tuesday, that now-constant worry was salved, for the time being. A 25-pound sack rested at the hem of Naw’s bright purple sarong as she stood beside friends outside the worn City Heights apartment building whose units have, in the last two years, slowly been occupied by refugees from Burma.

She squatted down as the others curiously inspected containers of baby spinach and tomato sauce delivered by workers from the Episcopal Refugee Network, a local nonprofit. She reached into the sack of rice and took a palm full, letting it run through her fingers. Her neighbors crowded in for a closer look, some reaching down to test the quality of the grain they would divide among themselves.

“Yes, it’s good! Very good!” they all agreed as they stepped back.

Naw’s neighbor sang as she plunged into a box of oranges, and filled her plastic bag. “Very good.”

Since 2006, roughly 200 families have arrived in San Diego from the southeast Asian country of Myanmar, formerly Burma. They came by way of the teeming refugee camps in neighboring Thailand and Malaysia, where some lived for as many as three decades, fleeing repression from the Burmese government’s crackdown on the country’s seven ethnic minority groups.

They are San Diego’s second-fastest growing community of refugees, after the Iraqis. The transformation of residential corners like this one is adding yet another layer of diversity to City Heights, where influxes of immigrants often indicate where the latest international conflicts are happening.

A majority of the refugees are from Burma’s Karen ethnic group, whose national liberation army has been engaged in a long fight for autonomy with the country’s ruling military government. Families started arriving in San Diego in 2006, when the United States government cleared the way for refugees to enter the country.

And like the six families who divided the haul delivered to their apartments on Tuesday, most of the 200 families who have settled in City Heights and El Cajon are living threadbare existences. They are depending, in most cases, on the assistance of welfare, food stamps, and the city’s four refugee resettlement agencies, which can provide cash assistance for only the first eight months of resettlement.

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Influential Governments Should Reject Sham Process

(New York, March 10, 2010) – Newly issued laws in preparation for 2010 elections in Burma are designed to exclude the main opposition party and ensure a victory for the ruling military, Human Rights Watch said today.

The ruling State Peace and Development Council today released the Political Party Registration Law, which includes provisions barring prisoners from being members of political parties. The law effectively excludes more than 2,100 political activists currently imprisoned on politically motivated charges, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD). Provisions included in the law instruct any party wishing to register to expel members currently serving prison terms. A party that fails to do so will lose its registration and be unable to contest the elections.

“The new law’s assault on opposition parties is sadly predictable,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It continues the sham political process that is aimed at creating the appearance of civilian rule with a military spine.”

Yesterday the military government released the first of five laws in preparation for long promised polls in 2010, whose official date has yet to be announced. The Political Party Registration Law states that, “A prisoner may not be a member of a political party.” The law also requires existing political parties, such as the NLD, which won the 1990 elections, re-register within 60 days of March 10.

Human Rights Watch believes that there are 429 members of the NLD currently imprisoned, including 12 members elected to parliament in 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi will be effectively barred because she is currently serving a term of house arrest following her conviction in 2009 on politically motivated charges of permitting an intruder into her house in Rangoon while she was under house arrest imposed since 2003. Human Rights Watch is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners in Burma through its 2,100 in 2010: Free Burma’s Political Prisoners campaign.

“The law requires the NLD to choose between participating in the elections and keeping its leader and hundreds of its unjustly imprisoned members,” said Adams. “This is a choice that no political party should have to make and is a transparent attempt to knock the main opposition party out of the running.”

Other laws reportedly to be released this week include provisions for the upper and lower houses of parliament and the 14 regional parliaments as outlined in the 2008 constitution.

The release of the laws is the penultimate step in the military government’s long drawn out “Road Map to Disciplined Democracy,” a repressive process that has seen political parties deregistered and in some cases outlawed, and thousands of activists sent to prison.

The NLD overwhelmingly won the last elections held in Burma in 1990 with more than 80 percent of the seats and 60 percent of the popular vote. The ruling junta ignored the result and announced plans to write a new constitution, which began in 1993 and only concluded in September 2007. The new constitution, released in 2008 and endorsed by an implausible 92 percent of the population in an orchestrated referendum in May 2008, grants sweeping powers to the military. These include one-quarter of lower house seats and one-third of upper house seats in the parliament reserved for serving military officers, as well as immunity for military personnel from civilian prosecution and the reservation of key ministerial portfolios to serving military officers.

The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for “the release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and their free participation in the political life of their country; the commencement of dialogue between the Government and opposition and ethnic stakeholders as a necessary part of any national reconciliation process; and the creation of conditions conducive to credible and legitimate elections.” Close allies of Burma, including China, have called for an inclusive political process.

“Any optimism that these elections will usher in a period of change in Burma is cynically misplaced,” Adams said. “The Burmese government is demonstrating contempt for the democratic process, the people of Burma, and international opinion, including its friends in China, India, and ASEAN, who have asked for an inclusive political process.”

To view the Human Rights Watch report, “Burma’s Forgotten Prisoners,” please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/free-burmas-prisoners

To view the Human Rights Watch World Report 2010 Burma chapter, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87392

For more information please contact:

In London, Brad Adams (English): +44-20-7713-2767; or +44-7908-728-8333 (mobile)

In New York, Elaine Pearson (English): +1-212-216-1213; or +1-646-291-7169 (mobile)

In Washington, DC, Tom Malinowski (English): +1-202-612-4358; or +1-202-309-3551 (mobile)

In Brussels, Reed Brody (English, French, Portuguese, Spanish): +32-498-625786 (mobile)

In Thailand, David Mathieson (English): +66-87-176-2205 (mobile)

In Bangkok, Sunai Phasuk (English, Thai): +66-81-632-3052 (mobile)

by Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch

Published in: The International Herald Tribune

February 28, 2010

Stanley Weiss (“A first step toward democracy?” Views, Feb. 23) demonstrates the triumph of cynicism over principle in discussing Burma’s planned elections.

If Burma’s ruling generals stage elections in 2010 “without violence or repression,” it will be a step forward, Mr. Weiss argues. He has an odd definition of repression, which apparently does not include an election “stage-managed by the military.”

If Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy “chooses not to participate,” it will surely be because the N.L.D., which won Burma’s last elections in 1990 but has suffered repression since, determines the election will be rigged. To pretend that violence will not be part of the process is disingenuous, since its threat by an army with a very bloody record is something all Burmese have to consider before joining an opposition party or taking to the streets.

Here’s the reality: Peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007 were crushed with extreme violence. The 2008 constitutional referendum was rigged. More than 2,100 political prisoners languish in horrific prisons. The junta has refused to engage in serious dialogue with the opposition. And without concerted international pressure, particularly from China, there will be no meaningful change.

Mr. Weiss argues that bogus elections and an end to sanctions will lead to a new Burma. But why a regime wallowing in cash from selling the country’s natural resources – while most Burmese live in poverty – would relax its grip if sanctions ended is a mystery. Instead, the United States, the European Union, Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations should finally implement serious targeted financial sanctions. And the United Nations should tell the generals that if they don’t reform quickly it will authorize an inquiry into decades of massive human rights abuses by the military.

International justice should be on the international agenda. That would get the generals’ attention.

Brad Adams, London
Asia director, Human Rights Watch

For all Human Rights Watch reporting on Burma, please visit: http://www.hrw.org/asia/burma.

Thailand: Migrant Workers Face Killings, Extortion, Labor Rights Abuses
February Deadline for Renewal of Work Permits Invites Exploitation

(Bangkok, February 23, 2010) – The Thai government should swiftly act to end police abuse and discriminatory laws and policies against migrant workers and their families, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The February deadline for more than a million migrant workers to enter the “nationality verification” process or face immediate deportation creates the risk of further abuses and should be postponed until it can be carried out in a fair manner.

Human Rights Watch’s 124-page report, “From the Tiger to the Crocodile: Abuse of Migrant Workers in Thailand,” is based on 82 interviews with migrants from neighboring Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. It describes the widespread and severe human rights abuses faced by migrant workers in Thailand, including killings, torture in detention, extortion, and sexual abuse, and labor rights abuses such as trafficking, forced labor, and restrictions on organizing.

“Migrant workers make huge contributions to Thailand’s economy, but receive little protection from abuse and exploitation,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Those from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos suffer horribly at the hands of corrupt civil servants and police, unscrupulous employers, and violent thugs, who all realize they can abuse migrants with little fear of consequences.”

Human Rights Watch said that migrant workers face an imminent threat from the Thai government’s decision that all migrants must enter the national verification process by February 28, or face arrest and deportation. Eighty percent of the migrant workers in Thailand are from Burma. They are particularly at risk, as they face ethnic and political conflict in their home country. The costs of the nationality verification process, which can amount to two or three months of salary, are unacceptably high for these migrant communities.

Human Rights Watch said that unrealistic demands set by the Thai government, coupled with a complicated and unregulated nationality verification process, could lead to mass deportations of migrants from Thailand to Burma and situations that could result in fundamental human rights and labor rights violations.

Police abuse migrants with impunity. A Burmese migrant told Human Rights Watch that she witnessed two Thai policemen in Ranong repeatedly kick a Burmese youth in the chest, killing him, because he did not reply to their inquiries in Thai.

“Many Burmese were watching and nobody went and helped because all of the people were afraid of those police, so nobody said anything about this killing, and nobody informed the police station,” said the witness. “When I saw this [killing], I felt that we Burmese people always have to be humble and have to be afraid of the Thai police. I feel that there is no security for our Burmese people [in Thailand] or for myself.”

Local police and officials frequently ignore or fail to effectively investigate complaints. Provincial decrees and national laws prohibit migrants from establishing their own organizations to assert their rights, while restrictions in policy on changing employers, moving outside designated areas, and convening meetings with more than a handful of persons leave migrants vulnerable to exploitation and ill-treatment.

Another migrant worker told Human Rights Watch how two armed men approached her in the rubber plantation where she worked, shot her husband dead in front of her, and then both men raped her. Despite a suspect being named in a police report, the police did not pursue the case.

“I am Burmese and a migrant worker. That is why the police don’t care about this case,” she said. ”My husband and I are only migrant workers and we have no rights here.”

Migrants reported constant fear of extortion by the police, who demand money or valuables from migrants held in police custody in exchange for their release. It is not uncommon for a migrant to lose the equivalent of one to several months’ pay in one extortion incident.

“Many officials and police treat migrant workers like walking ATMs,” said Adams. “They are just part of a system that robs and mistreats migrants wherever they turn.”

Human Rights Watch found that in several provinces decrees by provincial governors have increased migrants’ vulnerability by enforcing prohibitions on use of mobile phones and motorcycles, imposing harsh restrictions on movement, outlawing migrant gatherings, and enforcing nighttime curfews. These repressive decrees reflect the treatment of migrants as a national security problem instead of as part of a global phenomenon of the movement of people for economic, environmental, and political reasons.

“If the Abhisit government really is reformist, it should immediately abolish the provincial decrees that keep migrants effectively held under lock and key, bound to their job sites, and cut off from the outside world,” said Adams.

Human Rights Watch called on the Thai government to establish an independent and impartial commission to investigate allegations of abuse by police and other authorities against migrants. Such a commission should have the power to subpoena, require presentation of evidence, and recommend criminal and civil charges against abusers. It should make public reports on a periodic basis.

“Life is extremely uncertain and unsafe for migrants in Thailand as they flee one difficult or deadly situation into another,” said Adams. “They are a living example of the Thai proverb which describes how the vulnerable ‘escape from the tiger, but then meet the crocodile.’”

The Human Rights Watch report, “From the Tiger to the Crocodile: Abuse of Migrant Workers in Thailand” is available at:
http://www.hrw.org/node/88619

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Thailand, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/asia/thailand

For more information, please contact:
In London, Brad Adams (English): +44-20-7713-2767; or +44-7908-728-333 (mobile)
In Bangkok, Sunai Phasuk (English, Thai): +66-81-632-3052 (mobile)
In Perth, Elaine Pearson (English): + +61-4155-47-898 (mobile)
In Washington, DC, Sophie Richardson (English, Mandarin): +1-202-612-4341; or +1-917-721-7473 (mobile)

(New York, February 11, 2010) – The Burmese military government should immediately release the 84-year-old opposition leader U Tin Oo, whose house arrest order expires on February 13, 2010, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should also immediately release the human rights activist Nyi Nyi Aung, a US citizen sentenced to three years in prison on February 10 on spurious charges after an unfair trial.

U Tin Oo, the deputy leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), has spent nearly seven years in prison and under house arrest in Rangoon. He has been held under an annually renewed detention order and denied access to visitors and fellow party leaders since 2003. U Tin Oo’s house arrest order expires one day before the arrival of the United Nations human rights envoy on Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, for a visit through February 20.

“U Tin Oo has paid dearly for his courageous opposition to military rule,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “His release on schedule will be an important test of whether Burma’s generals will allow even modest pluralism before the elections this year.”

Authorities arrested U Tin Oo in May 2003 on politically motivated charges of disturbing public order after pro-government militias attacked the convoy carrying him and other opposition leaders, including the National League for Democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, near Depayin, upper Burma. U Tin Oo helped form the NLD in 1988 and was also under house arrest from 1989 to 1995.

Nyi Nyi Aung, also known as Kyaw Zaw Lwin, was sentenced on February 10 to three years in prison by a closed court inside Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison on politically motivated charges of violating the immigration law, currency offenses, and forging documents. A native of Burma, Nyi Nyi Aung was held in Insein prison more than 20 years ago for a short period, where he was tortured. After his release he fled to Thailand. He went to the US as a refugee in 1993 and later became a US citizen, where he remained involved in peaceful activities in the United States and Thailand to seek the release of political prisoners in Burma.

Nyi Nyi Aung was arrested when he arrived in Rangoon on September 3, 2009. He was initially accused of national security violations, but other trumped-up charges were added later. He was accused of holding a forged Burmese national identity card, even though he holds a US passport, and of immigration offenses. He was also charged with failing to declare foreign currency at customs, even though authorities arrested him before he passed through customs.

“The real reason Nyi Nyi Aung is behind bars today is his bravery in standing up for political prisoners,” Adams said. “That Burma’s generals didn’t think twice about throwing a US citizen in jail shows their contempt for recent US efforts to have a high-level political dialogue with the government.”

In the past year, the Burmese military government has arrested at least 270 political activists throughout the country, adding them to an estimated 2,195 political prisoners. During the same period, about 266 were released. Since October, 44 activists have been sentenced to harsh prison terms, most ranging from 5 to 52 years. On December 12 a court sentenced U Nanda Vantha, a Buddhist monk from Mandalay, to 71 years in prison.

Human Rights Watch’s campaign, 2100 in 2010: Free Burma’s Political Prisoners, calls on the international community to press for the release of all political detainees (the number stood at 2,100 when the campaign began) ahead of national elections announced for some time in 2010.

Human Rights Watch urged influential countries, including China, India, and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to call publicly for the release of all political prisoners in Burma.

“The UN envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana has his work cut out for him on this trip,” Adams said. “He should press Burma for the immediate release of U Tin Oo, Nyi Nyi Aung, and thousands of other political prisoners to stop this disgraceful charade of releasing a few prisoners and refilling their prison cells with new victims.”

To read the December 2009 Human Rights Watch news release, “Burma: Clinton Should Press for Release of Burmese-American,” please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/12/18/burma-clinton-should-press-release-burmese-american

To read the February 2007 Human Rights Watch news release, “Burma: Pro-democracy Leader Detained Indefinitely,” please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2007/02/15/burma-pro-democracy-activist-detained-indefinitely

To read the Human Rights Watch World Report Burma chapter, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87392

For more information, please contact:
In London, Brad Adams (English): +44-20-7713-2767; or +44-7908-728-333 (mobile)
In Bangkok, David Mathieson (English): +66-87-176-2205 (mobile)
In Washington, DC, Tom Malinowski (English): +1-202-612-4358; or +1-202-309-3551 (mobile)

Push-backs to Burma into Heavily Mined Areas Threaten Lives

(New York, February 6, 2010) – Thailand should immediately stop pressuring ethnic Karen refugees to return to Burma, Human Rights Watch said today. Repatriation to the designated “return zone” in Burma would place returnees at serious risk of human rights abuses and landmines.

On February 5, Thai military and civilian officials sent three families of Karen refugees, comprising 12 adults and children, from a temporary refugee site at the Thai border to Ler Per Her, a site for internally displaced persons inside Karen state in Burma. The families are part of a group of 30 families recently singled out to return to an area in Burma from which they fled after fighting in mid-2009. Thai military officials gave assurances to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that any returns would be voluntarily, but the return followed weeks of aggressive tactics to coerce the refugees to return, Human Rights Watch said.

“Thai authorities are cajoling and threatening Karen refugees to head back into harm’s way, while maintaining Thailand is not breaching international refugee law,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Thai government should reverse course before these refugees are harmed by mines or pressed into forced labor by the Burmese army.”

In May and June 2009, approximately 4,500 Karen fled pervasive use of forced labor and a military offensive in northeastern Karen state by the Burmese army and their proxy-militia, the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), against the anti-government Karen National Union (KNU) and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA). They crossed the border and settled into Nong Bua and Mae U Su, two temporary refugee sites in Tha Song Yang district of Tak province in western Thailand. An estimated 2,400 of the refugees are living in rudimentary quarters in these isolated temporary sites close to the border.

Local Thai military officials claim there is no fighting across the border in Burma and assert that it is safe for the Karen to return. However, refugees at one of the sites told Human Rights Watch there has been extensive planting of landmines in their villages back in Burma, and they fear being used as forced porters by the Burmese army and the DKBA.

Human Rights Watch has grave fears for the safety of civilians forcibly returned to active conflict zones inside Burma. All three parties to the conflict in Karen state extensively use antipersonnel mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The Burmese army, DKBA, and KNLA continue to plant landmines near their military bases, on trails in the jungles, and around civilian settlements and agricultural fields. According to the Burma section of the annual Landmine Monitor Report there were 721 casualties from landmine injuries in the country in 2008. Burma has not ratified the Mine Ban Treaty and rarely participates in international forums to ban the use of landmines. There are virtually no de-mining operations currently in eastern Burma, and landmine education is limited.

On January 18, a 25-year-old Karen woman who was nine months pregnant stepped on a landmine in the refugee return zone, losing half of her left foot.

I walked back into Karen state with my ten-year-old nephew. I was 9 months pregnant. I was walking on the path leading into the village, and I followed the buffalo just off the path and then stepped on the landmine. Half of my foot disappeared. I could not walk. My nephew ran back over to Thailand to get my husband to help me. It took about 30 minutes for them to come. Three men carried me on a [makeshift bamboo] stretcher. I was worried, I feared for my baby. I was taken to Mae Sot hospital [in Thailand] and they took my baby out [C-section] on the same day. I don’t want to go back to my village [in Burma]. I only went back once and I stepped on a landmine. I’m afraid to go back again. It is not safe anywhere.

“The risks from landmines to people forced back to Burma are deadly real,” said Adams.

Human Rights Watch called on the Thai government to halt all plans to return the group and to allow UNHCR to interview and conduct refugee status determinations. International refugee support organizations have repeatedly recommended that all 2,400 Karen be temporarily relocated to an existing refugee camp at Mae La, a one hour’s drive south of Tha Song Yang.

Human Rights Watch said that the Thai government should not heed empty promises by the DKBA and KNLA, which have reportedly told Thai military officials and refugee representatives at Nong Bua and Mae U Su that they will clear landmines in the Ler Per Her return area. The DKBA has agreed to become part of the Burmese army’s “Border Security Guard,” and has expanded its territorial control over much of the Thai-Burma border in Karen state. Armed groups make extensive use of landmines to exert local control in situations of continued low level conflict punctuated by military offensives.

“Trusting armed militias to remove the landmines they have sown is no way to reassure refugees, and Thai authorities should not be complicit in this charade,” Adams said. “Thailand should instead properly screen, register and shelter these families instead of threatening them into crossing a border.”

To read the Human Rights Watch World Report Burma chapter, click here:

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/87392

To read the December 2006 Human Rights Watch news release, “Burma: Landmines Kill, Maim and Starve Civilians,” please visit:http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/12/20/burma-landmines-kill-maim-and-starve-civilians

For more information, please contact:

In London, Brad Adams (English): +44-20-7713-2767; or +44-7908-728-333 (mobile)
In Bangkok, Dave Mathieson (English): +66-87-176-2205 (mobile)
In Washington, DC, Sophie Richardson (English, Mandarin): +1-202-612-4341; or +1-917-721-7473 (mobile)

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.

“It’s cruelly ironic that someone who campaigned for the release of political prisoners is now facing a lengthy jail term himself on trumped-up charges,” said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Burma’s generals should stop this charade and release Zaw Lwin immediately.”

Burmese authorities arrested Zaw Lwin at Rangoon International Airport on September 3, 2009. 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.

Human Rights Watch said that over the past two years, the number of political prisoners in Burma has doubled and at least 2,100 political prisoners currently languish in Burma’s squalid prisons. The first elections in 20 years are scheduled for some time in 2010.

“The US should press for the release of all political prisoners, but especially Zaw Lwin as a US citizen,” said Pearson. “The Obama administration should tell Burma’s generals this trial is a litmus test for its commitment to release political prisoners prior to the 201

www.hrw.org