Crackdown on Critics Continues as Burma Claims Political Change

Source:http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20695


Last Friday, as Burma's military-dominated Parliament elected the country's first civilian president in nearly five decades, a court in Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison sentenced a photojournalist to 13 years in prison on political charges—signaling continuing repression despite claims of a transition to a “disciplined democracy.”
Maung Maung Zeya, 58, received the sentence following a closed trial by a Special Court inside Insein Prison after being accused of contacting Burmese exiled media and breaking the Electronics Act.

An aerial view of Insein Prison. (Photo: Nic Dunlop)

The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), a Norway-based exiled media group, confirmed today that Maung Maung Zeya and his 21-year-old son, Sithu Zeya, were employed by the group as journalists working inside Burma. Aye Chan Naing, the executive director of DVB, said it decided to reveal this information in order to campaign for the pair's release. 
The trial occurred as Burma's new Parliament in Naypyidaw elected the prime minister of the ruling junta, ex-Gen Thein Sein, as the country's first civilian president since the army took power from a democratic government in 1962. 


Maung Maung Zeya was arrested in April of last year with his son, who was caught by police while photographing the aftermath of a bombing in downtown Rangoon during the annual water festival marking the Burmese New Year.


The rare bombing, which killed at least 10 people, including a senior military officer, was believed to have been an unsuccessful attempt by militant dissidents to assassinate Nay Shwe Thwe Aung, the grandson of junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe.
According to Thein Nyunt, a lawyer for the photographer, Maung Maung Zeya was arrested during a police raid on his home, where the authorities discovered photos taken at events held by the disbanded opposition party, the National League for Democracy, and other photos he had already sent to the exiled media.
He was charged with contacting illegal associations, breaking immigration laws and violating the notorious Electronics Act, which the regime has increasingly used to jail dissidents, including the famous comedian Zarganar.


“Those photos are the only evidence against him. They have nothing else to back up the charges,” said the lawyer, who also said that he suspects his client was drugged during interrogations.
“His health has deteriorated a lot since his arrest, and  I believe that drugs used in the course of interrogating my client are the cause,” he said. “I am in the process of taking legal action against this.”
Yi Yi Tin, the wife of Maung Maung Zeya, said her son received an eight-year sentence on similar charges last year. She said that her son, who is currently being held in Insein Prison, was recently tortured by the prison authorities in a solitary confinement cell and sustained an injury to his head.


Maung Maung Zeya, who was jailed for involvement in an anti-government protest during the rule of the late dictator Ne Win, became the first political prisoner since Burma's new Parliament was formed last week, according to Tate Naing, the joint-secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an advocacy group for an estimated 2,200 political prisoners in Burma.
The group claims that the regime has recently used about 600 criminal prisoners as human minesweepers during a recent conflict with ethnic armed groups in Karen State.
A recent report also said that as many as 80 prisoners from Buthidaung Prison in Arakan State were used as forced laborers in government construction projects last month.
According to AAPP, at least 27 of Burma's 2,200 political prisoners are journalists, bloggers or photographers.