A Myanmar court handed 15-year jail terms to two senior opposition politicians on the eve of a visit by a U.N. human rights envoy, the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said on Saturday.
NLD members Nyi Bu and Tin Min Htut were convicted of various charges on Friday in a court session held at the high-security Insein prison in Yangon without lawyers or family members present, NLD spokesman Nyan Win told Reuters.
Both politicians won seats in parliament when the NLD scored a landslide win in a 1990 general election. The ruling military junta ignored the results.
"They did not get any legal assistance from their lawyers at all ... I can't imagine how the hearing was conducted," Nyan Win said.
The two men were arrested in August after they wrote an open letter to the United Nations criticizing the ruling military regime's seven-step roadmap toward democratic political reforms.
The court's decision, not reported by state-run media, came a day before the arrival of U.N. special rapporteur for human rights, Tomas Ojea Quintana, who hopes to meet political prisoners and detained opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
"We do welcome Mr. Quintana as the human rights situation here is getting worse and worse," the NLD spokesman said.
During his 5-day visit, Ojea will try to assess human rights developments in Myanmar after a previous trip last summer, the United Nations said in a statement.
Ojea hopes to meet military officials to discuss the implementation of several human rights practices which he has recommended be in place before elections due in 2010.
Last week U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari failed to make headway in efforts to bring the former Burma's military junta and Suu Kyi's NLD closer to talks on reform. [ID:nBKK38923]
Gambari met Suu Kyi, who insisted the 1990 election must be the basis for any settlement. The most senior junta official he met was Prime Minister Thein Sein, number four in the military hierarchy.
A United Nations independent expert on human rights arrived in Myanmar Saturday for a six-day visit, UN and Myanmar officials confirmed.
Tomas Ojea Quintana, the special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, arrived in the Southeast Asian nation at 6.45pm (1215 GMT), they told AFP.
"The main objectives of his visit are to assess the development of the situation of human rights since his previous mission last summer," the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement Friday.
Quintana will visit Karen state Sunday, UN officials confirmed, before returning to the main city Yangon to visit the notorious Insein prison that holds hundreds of political activists.
The regime has handed out heavy jail terms to dozens of pro-democracy activists in recent months.
Quintana's visit comes a day after the opposition National League of Democracy (NLD) said two of its senior leaders had been jailed without being allowed a legal defence and another had seen his sentence extended.
NLD vice-chairman, 82-year-old Tin Oo, will remain under house arrest for at least another year, spokesman Nyan Win said, while leaders Nyipu and Tin Min Htut had been sent to Insein prison for 15 years each Friday.
"They were charged with three offences including the electronic act," Nyan Win told AFP, referring regmime's ban unauthorised use of computers.
Tin Oo was arrested with NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2003 after an attack on their motorcade during a political tour.
The NLD launched petition Thursday, the 62nd annniversary of Myanmar's Union Day, calling for the release of political prisoners including Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo.
Nyan Win said he did not know yet if Quintana would meet the party.
"We hope to see him but we haven't been informed yet if we will," Nyan Win said.
The UN said Quintana would also visit the junta's remote capital, Naypyidaw, but was unlikely to meet senior leadership, although he would see chief justice Aung Toe.
No further details of the trip have been confirmed but the UN said Quintana would be discussing the implementation of recommendations he made on his previous visit.
These recommendations include reforms of legislation to ensure human rights protection, the release of political prisoners, independence for the judiciary and training on human rights for the army.
The visit also comes amid criticism by rights groups of the regime's treatment of minorities, in particular the Rohingya Muslims, who have been fleeing the repressive country by boat in large numbers.
Quintana's visit is expected to pave the way for a possible visit later in the year by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon after another visit by the UN's Special Envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, last month.
Gambari met Aung San Suu Kyi but failed to secure a meeting with Myanmar's head of state Senior General Than Shwe.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the last 19 years under detention by the junta that has ruled the country since 1962.
Her NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 that the junta refused to recognise.
The military regime has promised to hold elections in 2010, but critics have dismissed the polls as a sham.
No comments:
Post a Comment