PHR welcomes recent changes in Burma, but calls for the government todo much more. PHR has long pushed the leaders of Burma to release politicalprisoners, end violent campaigns against members of minority ethnic groups, andhold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable.

Since Burma’s 2010 elections, recent changes reveal initial improvementson several human rights issues but these changes, while important, do not yetsignify deeper reform. Burmese laws still prohibit basic freedoms, and militarycommanders responsible for heinous human rights violations continue to gounpunished. PHR calls on the Government of Burma to:

• Unconditionally release all political prisoners,and end all intimidation and harassment of political opposition and humanrights defenders;
• End all attacks on civilians, especially againstminority ethnic communities;
• Ensure consistent access of humanitarian groupsto conflict areas;
• Establish fair and transparent mechanisms tohold perpetrators of human rights violations accountable for their actions;
• Eliminate laws that restrict basic freedoms suchas freedom of speech and association; and
• Establish the rule of law by promulgating lawsthat protect human rights and political freedoms and ensuring that these lawsare drafted and implemented in an inclusive, transparent, and consistentmanner.

Political Prisoners

Following international outcry, the Government of Burma released dozensof high-profile political prisoners including well-known democracy activistsMin Ko Naing and U Gambira. While the release of some political prisoners is anotable step forward, recent events indicate that the release does not signal the end ofharassment and intimidation of democracy advocates.

U Gambira, a monk who led the 2007 Saffron Revolution and wassubsequently imprisoned, was released on January 13 but was re-arrested severalweeks later. After being briefly detained, he now faces new charges.

The authorities continue to harass former political prisoners whoreturn to pro-democracy activities. Since recently released political prisonerswere not officially pardoned, any perceived misstep could land them back injail to serve the remainder of their prison sentences.

PHR calls on the Burmese government to release all remaining politicalprisoners unconditionally and to revoke the remaining sentences for thoserecently released.

Ceasefire negotiations withethnic groups

Recent news of a ceasefire between the government and the Karen National Union(KNU) was celebrated by the international community; however, high-levelrepresentatives from the KNU insisted a ceasefire agreement has not beenreached. Such an agreement would only be the beginning of the reforms needed toend the system of militarization and impunity that has gripped the ethnicminority areas of Burma.

News of progress in one region of Burma is welcome, but does notaddress the scale of the military’s attacks on civilians. In September 2011, PHRinvestigatedthe human rights and humanitarian situation in Kachin State, and found that theBurmese military forced Kachin civilians to serve as human minesweepers,pillaged food and supplies from civilians, and fired weapons into a village.

PHR calls on the government to ensure that the military ends itsviolent campaigns against the Karen, the Kachin, and other ethnic groups inBurma. Because the violence has left tens of thousands of civilians displacedand in urgent need of assistance, the government should ensure that local andinternational humanitarian organizations have unimpeded access to those inneed.

Media and Free Speech

Burma has recently loosened strict media controls, allowing access tointernational news and social media sites. International journalists also haveincreased access to the country, and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is nowfeatured in the national press.

PHR welcomes the loosened media controls, but also calls for this positiveshift to be accompanied by legal changes to draconian laws that curb free speechand freedom of assembly.

Current Burmese laws authorize severe punishment for those who exercisetheir rights of free speech, assembly, and press. The Government of Burma must revokethese laws and other similar restrictions in order to ensure greater freedomsin the media.

National Human Rights Commission

The Burmese government established a National Human Rights Commission inSeptember 2011 to uphold human rights in the country. However, the Commissionis neither transparent nor independent from the government, and its memberswere nominated by President Thein Sein without input from civil society groups. The Commission’s Chairman, Win Mra, wasalso a former ambassador to the UN and has repeatedly defended the Burmeseregime’s human rights violations.  

The Commission recently announced that itwould not investigate allegations of human rights violations against ethnicminorities in conflict zones – one of the most pressing human rights issues inthe country. The shirking of this essential investigation suggests the lack ofindependence of the Commission and may indicate that decisions will be based onpolitical pressure, not human rights priorities. 

Conclusion

Recent changes in Burma have inspired hope for those dedicated to humanrights, but more work must be done before these initial changes becomeindicators of reforms that will lead Burma from a pariah state to a true memberof the international community dedicated to protecting the rights of itspeople.

PHR calls on the international community to recognize the initialprogress made by the Burmese authorities, but remain seized with the currentdevelopments in the country, including the ongoing attacks on ethnic groups.

PHR’s testimony by Dr. Scott Allen based on important findings from the groundbreaking report, “Punishment Before Justice: Indefinite Detention in the US,” was submitted by Senator Dianne Feinstein at a crucial Senate hearing on indefinite detention.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) expressed concern today regarding a State Department announcement that the US will reinstate $1.3 billion in military assistance to Egypt. The funds had been withheld during the country’s attacks on civilians and several US-based groups that had long operated in Egypt. The Administration used a waiver, on national security grounds, to bypass a law that would have forbidden such assistance absent progress on a democratic transition.

The withholding of military assistance is an important tool through which the US can advocate for greater substantive human rights reforms, especially in those countries that consider themselves strategic partners of the United States. 

By reinstating all military assistance to Egypt, the US ignores the Egyptian authorities’ ongoing human rights abuses, which are far-ranging and include grave violations of medical neutrality.

The US should withhold military assistance until the Egyptian authorities end these attacks and hold all perpetrators accountable.

The US should not actively support governments that use military equipment to crack down on peaceful protesters, and should honor congressional intent and US law by severely limiting the use of presidential waivers. These waivers are not a shortcut to circumvent the larger human rights policy goals of the United States.

During a recent investigation in Egypt, PHR documented attacks on the health profession including intimidating medical personnel and blocking those in need from accessing care. PHR also documented the effects of excessive use of force on the part of Egypt’s security forces against civilians, some of whom had serious health problems following the improper use of tear gas.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today applauded the US Administration for delivering aid, including medical supplies to opposition groups within Syria.

The reported coordination between the US and Türkiye will increase this essential aid during a time of increased violence within Syria. The administration of such humanitarian aid is a key recommendation in PHR’s policy statement on Syria, and represents a significant advance in the international community’s efforts to directly help the people of Syria.

The US must continue to press for an end to attacks on civilians in Syria and greater assistance to those aiding civilians fleeing the country.

The US could provide additional financial support to Syria’s neighbors for the creation of safe zones, and could provide greater support to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to reach even more people in need.

The entire international community should continue pressing for the Syrian government to comply with Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, which includes calls for the admittance of humanitarian aid and political dialogue with opposition groups.

In December 2011, PHR published a report documenting violations of medical neutrality in Syria, including reports of government forces denying wounded civilians impartial medical treatment, invading or attacking health care facilities, inhibiting medical transport, and detaining and torturing doctors for treating civilians.

Recent news reports state that the UN special rapporteur ontorture has said a video showing evidence of torture within Syrian hospitals,“is consistent with what my mandate (office) has been receiving over the lastseveral months.” This documentation of gruesome attacks on injured patients, apparentlycaptured on film by a hospital employee, is further evidence of the brutalityunleashed on civilians by the Syrian government.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has documentedthe Syrian government’s assault on the country’s medical community and itspatients, which has included denying medical treatment for injured civilians,arresting and torturing doctors and patients, and attacking and misusing healthcare facilities.

This new evidence that Syria’s state-run hospitals may havebeen turned into torture chambers is another chilling development in PresidentAssad’s unrelenting crackdown on civilian protesters.

PHR condemns any act of torture, including acts committed bymedical professionals who are bound to “do no harm.” These alleged acts oftorture violate medical professionals’ ethical obligations to always act in thepatient’s best interest and to deliver medical care in a compassionate mannerthat respects human dignity.

Those in the medical community must not use their positionsin the health care field to commit abuses. PHR stands in solidarity with thehealth care workers who denounce torture and who risk their lives to bringinformation about human rights abuses to the attention of the internationalcommunity.

Last week’s statement from the UN Security Council as wellas last month’s General Assembly resolution demonstrate the internationalcommunity’s growing concern with the situation in Syria and the globalconsensus that all attacks on civilians must cease immediately.

PHR calls for stronger measures, including a referral ofSyria by the Security Council to the International Criminal Court. Such areferral would be an essential step to bring accountability to Syrian leaderswho have committed crimes against humanity. The international community shouldcontinue to focus on avenues to accountability for all those responsible forheinous attacks on civilians.

Last week a fire broke out in Umpiem refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border, destroying at least 1,000 homes and leaving about a third of the 15,000 camp residents homeless. Two children were killed in the blaze.

I visited Umpiem camp last month to give a lecture at Kaw Lah Junior College, a two-year public health training program for refugees that is run by the Karen Refugee Committee Education Entity (KRCEE).

The camp covered half of a valley, stretching up steep hillsides. People lived in crowded bamboo houses with thatched roofs. Though the camp has been there for more than ten years, authorities deemed it “temporary” and no permanent structures are permitted.

Refugees need permission to leave the camp, and although some are able to work as day laborers in fields outside the camp, most have difficulty finding work.

Life in the camp is precarious. The crowded conditions are conducive to disease transmission, and health NGOs are constantly working to prevent outbreaks. Food rations are cut when funding is not available, and there is very little space for people to grow their own food.

The Thai-Burma Border Commission estimates that there are 160,000 Burmese refugees in Thailand. They fled fighting and persecution in Burma, and although some positive changes have happened in Burma, many are reluctant to return.

There is pressure from the Burmese government to close the refugee camps as they are seen as a reminder that all is not well in Burma. Last week’s fire is a reminder of how vulnerable the refugees are. Their rights should not be overlooked in the rush to close the camps and improve Burma’s image.

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, a casethat will decide whether corporations are liable for human rights violations underthe Alien Tort Statute (ATS).

The plaintiffs, individual victims, and their family members, allege thatRoyal Dutch Petroleum was complicit in the Nigerian government’s killings, torture,and other attacks on opponents of the oil company’s activities in the NigerDelta. The ATS allows victims of human rights violations to sue in U.S. courts.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has differed fromother appellate courts when it exempted corporations from the reach of the ATS. 

The Supreme Court will also hear arguments in a different case todecide whether the Torture Victim Protection Act permits actions againstcorporations and other defendants that are not persons. The decision of theSupreme Court in these cases will resolve the split in the lower courts andwill determine the future of corporate accountability for human rightsviolations.

PHR has long documented human rights violations, including thosefacilitated by corporations. Our work in Burma, for example, has documentedhuman rights violations including extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, andforced labor.

In a case similar to Kiobel,the ATS was used by plaintiffs to sue Unocal, an oil company allegedlycomplicit in acts of forced labor, rape, and killing related to theconstruction of the company’s pipeline in Burma. The company settled andcompensated plaintiffs.

The ATS remains an essential tool for victims to sue violators of humanrights violations. The US should not let corporations out of their crimes butinstead should press for all those responsible to be held accountable.

A blanket grant of immunity allowing for corporations to commit humanrights violations only emboldens them to continue their abusive practices. TheSupreme Court should reverse the Second Circuit’s decision in Kiobel and ensure that corporations maybe held accountable for egregious human rights violations.

Such a decision would affirm the purpose of the ATS, punishperpetrators of serious crimes, and deter acts of corporate complicity in humanrights violations in the future.

 

PHR congratulates the 20 medics who graduated from the Free Burma Rangers (FBR) Jungle Medical School last week. This is the first class to graduate from the newFBR training facility inside Karen State, Burma.

The students spent one year at the school observing in aclinic and attending lectures on the anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology,signs and symptoms and diagnoses of the diseases they saw in the clinic.

“This focused the curriculum on the common things thestudents would see as medics.  It also taught them how to deal with theproblem with the resources we can get in that environment,” Dr Mitch Ryan, alecturer at the school, told PHR.

The students followed a rigorous schedule that started atdaybreak. In addition to clinical training, they had physical fitness training,worked on the hospital compound, visited patients in the clinic and in thehospital, cooked, carried food, ported supplies into the remote camp, andstudied.  According to Dr. Ryan, the students were very motivated–many ofthem had a family member who suffered or sometimes died because there was no medicalcare available in their village.

The new medics will be addressing a tremendous need. Civilwar has been raging in Karen State for over 60 years and has had devastatingeffects on civilians’ health there. In addition to trauma from landmines andfighting, people suffer from malaria, malnutrition, diarrhea and even elephantiasis. These diseases can be prevented and treated in peacefulsettings with functioning health systems, but this is far from the case inKaren State.

The Burmese government has invested almost nothing inclinics in rural areas, and several community-based organizations, includingFBR, have educated medics and opened clinics to serve the people there. FBR andother organizations serve hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority peoples inremote areas, and the Jungle Medical School will help to expand the capacity ofcommunity groups working to provide healthcare in rural Burma. PHR applaudsthese efforts to fulfill the right to health and calls on the internationalcommunity to continue its support for these groups.

Last week, The Governor of theMasvingo Province in Zimbabwe banned 29 NGO’s providing humanitarian relief and security in the region.The banned organizations – which include both local groups like Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rightsand Care International– have provided basic services and support to mitigate a worsening humanitariansituation in the country.

A joint statement issued by the Zimbabwe Lawyers for HumanRights, Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition and Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum affirmsthat  the Governor has no regulatoryauthority and cannot legally de-register NGOs.

While the Governor claims that theseorganizations did not register theiractivitieswith his office, many commentators allege that the ban is no more than a scare tactic ahead ofimpending general elections which will happen at some point this year.In 2008, a blanket ban on foreign NGOs made it difficult for the world to monitor Zimbabwe’s flawedelections.

Violations against Human Rights workersare frequent in Zimbabwe. Human rights defenders and activists are arbitrarilyarrested, detained and harassed. Earlier this month, ten members of the rightsgroup Women of Zimbabwe Arise were detained ata peaceful demonstration in Bulawayo.Preventing organizations from documenting rights violations and providinghumanitarian aid does an injustice to Zimbabwe’s citizenry.

In January 2009, Physicians for HumanRights released a report [pdf]detailing systematic human rights violations by Mugabe’s regime that weredirectly linked to the man-made collapse of the nation’s health system and anensuing cholera epidemic. PHR called on the UN Security Council to refer thesituation in Zimbabwe to the International Criminal Court to investigatepotential crimes against humanity.

PHR calls on the government of Zimbabwe to end theharassment of those delivering aid, thoroughly investigate all incidents ofarbitrary arrest and detention, and allow civil society groups unimpeded accessto deliver humanitarian assistance. With these essential steps the governmentof Zimbabwe can begin to turn the corner on its history of systematic humanrights violations.

This is the seventh of seven blog posts from Dina Fine Maron and M. Francesca Monn, writing from Mae Sot, Thailand, a town on the border with Burma. Maron and Monn are PHR interns who are collecting information about medical conditions and human rights abuses inside Burma’s prisons. This research is being completed with the help of Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP-B), a Thailand-based advocacy group consisting of former Burmese political prisoners.

In an interview, Myo Win, a former political prisoner and medical doctor, provided insights into the health conditions in Mandalay prison where he was jailed from 1999 until 2004.

Since Win [whose name was changed to protect his identity] knew the head prison doctor from medical school, he was allowed to live and work in the prison hospital instead of the general prison. His good rapport with the prison warden also gave him some autonomy in treating patients. 

Although the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) paid quarterly visits to Burmese prisons during the years of Win’s imprisonment—a service which vastly improved prison conditions—his stories of the diseases present in the prison, and the conflict experienced by many forced to work for the regime, echo those of other prisoners at the time. Infectious diseases, mental health concerns, and torture were constant concerns in this prison.

Infectious Diseases and Outbreaks
The most common conditions in Mandalay prison were malaria, tuberculosis, and malnutrition, Win said. Two severe cholera outbreaks occurred in Mandalay prison between 1999 and 2004. During that time the prison did not have enough IV fluids and antibiotics to treat the cases, and it took days for the government to respond with supplies. According to the doctor, during the more lethal of the two outbreaks 36 prisoners died. 

Mental health
Most prisoners also experienced some degree of depression, anxiety, extreme stress, or psychosis. Between 1999 and 2004, there were around 20 successful suicides and many more attempts at the prison.

Interrogation and Torture
Prisoners were frequently sent to the clinic bearing signs of torture. According to Win, prison officials marked May 27, 2000, the tenth anniversary of the NLD winning the last free and open election in Burma, by doling out physical punishment to the political prisoners. Loud music was blared over the prison loudspeakers, seemingly to muffle the shrieks from the prison blocks, and shortly after the music began the clinic began receiving a steady stream of prisoners with head trauma and broken bones. Many appeared to have been brutally beaten. The caseload grew so heavy that the physician begged prison authorities to send an orthopedic surgeon to help address the numerous severe fractures.

Dual Loyalty: A Duty to Oneself and One’s Employer
Torture also forced Win to struggle with his own medical ethics. During Win’s prison term one of his jobs was to perform autopsies. Injuries that he believed were the result of torture,  like ruptured spleens and bruised brains, were frequently the cause of death, he said. But to preserve his position in the hospital he wrote alternative causes of death on the death certificates such as “complication of hypertension” or “chronic lung disease.” Win struggled with his decisions but said that it was more important to continue to provide crucial services to living prisoners than write real causes of death on certificates and lose his position.

In 2012, Burma’s new regime has released hundreds of political prisoners in response to international pressure, but hundreds more remain behind bars. Releasing dissidents is an important step toward national reconciliation and legitimizing the government, however, more must be done. Political prisoners have suffered torture, denial of medical care, and loss of dignity at the hands of the state. They are entitled to reparations, an official apology, and a promise that Burma will never again see such injustices.

The government of Burma needs to do more: just releasing prisoners is not enough.