Political prisoner

A leading women’s activist has been jailed after leading a peaceful protest against copper mine project, sparking outrage from human rights groups, including Burma Campaign UK. Naw Ohn Hla, a former political prisoner and leading member of the Democracy and Peace Women Network, was arrested on August 13th after staging an unauthorized protest against a government backed copper mine project…

Burma Campaign UK, a prominent rights advocacy group, has accused the President of Burma, U Thein Sein, of keeping hundreds of political prisoners in jail despite his claims of democratic reform and liberalising the country’s political system. The group has highlighted the case of two leading rights activists as symbolic of the tenuous human rights situation in Burma despite the…

Burma’s government has received harsh criticism for arbitrarily arresting a 74 year-old human rights activist in July and keeping him under arrest despite reports that he is in poor health and cannot get proper medical attention. The elderly man, Kyaw Hla Aung has been in arbitrary detention in Sittwe Police Station No. 1 in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since July 15th.…

Burma’s government released 73 prisoners on the 23rd of July, a move welcomed by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The AAPP is cautious in it’s praise of the current release of political prisoners made by Burma’s government. “Despite the positive steps taken in freeing those imprisoned, there is still the increasing issue of the number of current activists…

A prominent human rights group has called into question President Thein Sein’s recent commitment to clear Burma’s jails of prisoners of conscience by the end of the year, with a human rights activist jailed in Rakhine State the same day the announcement was made. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma issued a statement calling for the President’s words…

A Rangoon based activist was jailed by the government for his role in organizing anti-government protests with farmers, over land confiscated to make way for a copper mine. Burma Campaign UK, a human rights advocacy group based in the United Kingdom, called on the British Government last week to pressure Burma’s government to repeal all repressive laws and release all…

A labor activist was jailed for seven years and six months, after being falsely accused of illegally cutting down trees, Burma Campaign UK, a human rights group that focuses on Burma, said. Myint Soe was arrested in March and sentenced to prison after being accused of cutting down eucalyptus trees on land owned by a paper company named Shwe Than…

Following the release of four protesters last week, an international advocacy group, Burma Campaign UK, called on the Burma government to stop using vague and undemocratic laws to jail its opponents. Burma’s military-backed government released four political prisoners on Friday, 18th of January. The prisoners released were Aung Hmine San, Than Htike, Min Naing Lwin and Thein Aung Myint. They…

In an exclusive interview with Karen News, Ko Bo Kyi, a founding member and joint-secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), outlined his concerns over Burma’s on going reform process and the treatment of current and former political prisoners inside Burmese prisons. According to the AAPP in the last two years around 1,000 political prisoners have been released,…

Ko Nay Myo Zin, who works to help farmers and rural villagers’ fight for the loss of their farmlands and for their rights, spoke publically in Karen State about the poor living conditions that ethnic people are having to endure. Ko Nay Myo Zin who is a former Burma Army officer and served jail time as a former political prisoner…