Engnews January 2009

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RFA News: Burmese Prisoners Killed After Cyclone

by Joshua Lipes

Burmese Prisoners Killed After Cyclone Burmese guards beat prisoners and deprived them of food after a riot following last year's cyclone. A group of survivors was sentenced on Jan. 11 to additional terms of 2-12 years. Also on www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> Asian Women in their own words www.rfa.org/english/news/women <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/women> BANGKOK-Guards at Burma's Insein Prison beat scores of inmates following a disturbance nine months ago, according to sources who asked not to be named. Nine of the prisoners later died from their injuries, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports. The beatings occurred during questioning aimed at identifying prisoners who rioted after the prison was damaged by Cyclone Nargis. After being beaten, the men were denied water for four days and food for 11 days. "They told us they would give us food if we confessed," a prisoner said. "But even after some confessed, we didn't get any food. Then, 11 days later, we began to receive a spoonful of rice puree twice a day." Rioting at Insein Prison broke out after the prison was pummeled by Cyclone Nargis beginning around midnight on May 2. The storm tore zinc roofs off some of the prison's colonial-era buildings and left prisoners exposed for several hours to heavy rains and wind, according to RFA's Burmese service. Frustrated at the long delay in being moved, prisoners in storm-damaged Halls No. 3 and 4 threatened to break out of their cells. Then, as prisoners in the damaged buildings were being relocated, the assistant warden and more than 20 armed guards began to argue with the prisoners and fired gunshots into the air. "One of the bullets hit an iron bar, ricocheted off the wall, and hit a prisoner named Thein San in the chest," a prisoner said. "The rest of the prisoners tried to hide, and some of the younger prisoners in Hall No. 8 started a fire." Suspects questioned, beaten Authorities then moved prisoners suspected of taking part in the disturbance to a central part of the prison, where they were questioned and beaten on their heads and backs, sources said. Prisoners who were beaten included Wai Moe, Khin Kyaw, Soe Kyaw Kyaw, Tun Lin Aung, and Aye Min Oo, according to friends of the men's families.Interrogations continued for several weeks and ended with 103 prisoners identified as rioters, with 41 identified as key leaders. On Jan. 11, a special court inside Insein handed down sentences of two years each to 28 participants in the riot. Wai Moe and six others were given 12 years each for arson, damaging public property, and leading the riot, according to sources close to the trial and the prisoners. But Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) spokesman Bo Kyi said that it is the prison authorities themselves who should have been charged with crimes. "Under international conventions, beatings and other forms of torture should not be used as punishments in prison procedure," he said. "The perpetrators of such beatings should be convicted for their actions. If they are not, we must assume that torturing prisoners is state policy." Original reporting in Burmese by Kyaw Min Htun. Burmese service director: Nancy Shwe. Executive producer: Susan Lavery. Written for the Web in English by Richard Finney. Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org. To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org ##### Joshua Lipes Online Copy Editor Radio Free Asia 2025 M Street, NW Washington DC, 20036 (202) 266-4094 CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION This e-mail message is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. Any unauthorized dissemination, distribution, or copying is strictly prohibited. If you receive this transmission in error, please contact network(a)rfa.org <mailto:network@rfa.org> . Visit us at www.rfa.org <http://www.rfa.org> P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

15 years, 11 months

RFA News: Party Interests 'Drive China, ' Civil Rights Movement Holds Key: Former Top Cadre

by Sarah Jackson-Han

Party Interests 'Drive China,' Civil Rights Movement Holds Key: Former Top Cadre Go to www.rfa.org for more HONG KONG, Jan. 5, 2009-China's ruling Communist Party is a highly efficient political machine that drives the country's 1.3 billion people with scant regard for their welfare, a former top official has said in a series of essays broadcast by Radio Free Asia (RFA). In a blistering conclusion to a series of essays for RFA's Mandarin service to mark the 30th anniversary of China's economic reforms, Bao Tong, former aide to the late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, said the main hope for political reform now lies with the country's civil rights movement, as its citizens increasingly begin to invoke rights already enshrined in law to protect themselves against abuse. "It is a system engineered to make sure the people are governed by the interests of the Party, engineered so that the Party can drive China's billion-strong population before it in any direction it chooses," Bao wrote from his Beijing home, where he has been under house arrest after serving a seven-year jail term in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. "It doesn't matter what the task is; the system is up to the challenge, up to mowing down everything in its path, however fruitful, up to dealing with sudden incidents, up to trying the signatories to Charter 08 in court; there is nothing it can't handle smoothly," he said, referring to a recent document signed by more than 300 intellectuals and rights activists which called for political reform. "Of all the grass-roots movements that have happened in the past 10 years, the one most worthy of notice is the civil rights movement," said Bao, citing government figures detailing tens of thousands of "mass incidents" across China every year: one every five minutes. Bao lashed out in an earlier essay at late supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, credited with launching China's economic reforms in 1978 and lauded in a series of official media features looking back over the last 30 years of economic growth. Bao also launched a stinging attack on the "terrifying juggernaut" that is China's one-Party state, saying it is now capable of driving all before it and now acts entirely in its own interests. The process of reforms was derailed after the 1989 crackdown, Bao said, and is now reformist only in name. China's chief hope for change still lies with grassroots activists around the country, he said. "The civil rights movement is extending its influence into every domain: from appeals and complaints about grievances and official wrongdoing, to health and safety, to land and property rights, to the right to religious freedom, to the right to ethnic autonomy, to the right to supervise those in power, and the right to self-expression and to vote," Bao said. "[This is] a phenomenon which is both unstoppable and impossible to hide." Original essays in Chinese by Bao Tong, broadcast on RFA's Mandarin service. Director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han. Bao Tong's 30th anniversary essays in English: * Party Interests 'Drive China' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-01052009131839.html> * China 'in Political Dead End' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12312008181844.html> * China's Economy 'No Miracle' <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12302008123051.html> * 'Two Faces' of Deng Xiaoping <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12292008165015.html> * A Pivotal Moment For China <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/thirdplenum-12272008165259.html> * Why China Had to Reform <http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/baotong-12272008095946.html> Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA's broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors. If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-leave@rfanews.org> . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org <mailto:engnews-join@rfanews.org> #####

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Engnews January 2009