Kachin activists want jailed refugees released

Ma Hka, a lawyer and former member of National Democratic Force (NDF) party

Lawyer, activists and various civil society groups held a prayer service on Tuesday in Myitkyina, the Kachin state capital, where they repeated calls for the immediate release of two jailed Kachin refugees, Lahpai Gam and Brang Yung.

“There is no response from the president, it looks like no action will be there, so we want to inform the President and all people about this case” said Ma Hka (also spelled Mar Hkar), a lawyer for the two men who were arrested in 2012 at an internally displaced persons camp on near Myitkyina

Last month 34 groups signed an open letter addressed to President Thein Sein calling for the immediate release of Lahpai Gam and Brang Yung. The two men are currently in prison serving, 20 and 21 year sentences, after being convicted under Article 17/1 of the Unlawful Association Act in connection for being Kachin Independence Army (KIA) operatives, a charge both men deny. They were also convicted for charges relating to the Explosives Act, charges that they also deny. The prayer service and public announcement began at 9am at the Shwezet Kachin Baptist Church compound Hall, Myitkyina township, Kachin State. The two men were living in a small refugee camp on church grounds at the time of their arrest.

The other purpose of the service is to inform everyone of the serious torture that both men faced explained Ma Hka. According to their lawyer both men were working in nearby Tarlawgyi (or Da Law) village at the time of their arrest. They were detained in June 2012 by soldiers from the Burmese Army's Infantry Battalion No. 37 and Military Affairs Security (MAS), on suspicion that both men were KIA operatives.

According to their families’ members and their lawyer, both men were subjected to brutal human rights violations during their interrogation. This included being forced to sodomize each other and perform other sex acts on each other.

It was during this time they were also forced to confess to being KIA operatives, according to their lawyer. They were also allegedly forced to drink water contaminated with gasoline. The men's appeals to the different courts at all levies of the justice system in Burma have been rejected. Both men won important victories earlier this during separate tribunals conducted by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which determined that both men were held in contravention of international law.