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I would like to say the Burmese greeting I
“Minglabar” to you. C
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My family is not the only family suffering in this way. My mother and
two of my cousins are merely three of over 2,100 political prisoners in P
jails all over Burma. Many of them are in bad health and require urgent R
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medical treatment. They are our heroes; our hope and faith in the
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democracy movement lies with them. Without your help and support O
these precious people will die in Burma's notorious prisons. N
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Nyi Nyi Aung (aka) Kyaw Zaw Lwin R
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So much for US dialogue with Burma February 11, 2010 R
Jared Genser http://www.dvb.no/english/news.php?id=3298 E
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• The junta, which professes to want to engage with the United States, believes that this won’t have consequences for the
Obama administration’s engagement policy with Burma. Since the arrest of Nyi Nyi Aung, the Burmese junta has done nothing
but ignore US diplomatic pleas on his behalf and flout international law. The junta arrested Nyi Nyi on 3 September last year at A
the Rangoon airport. He travelled to Burma to visit his mother, also an imprisoned democracy activist, who has cancer and is L
being denied medical treatment. Instead of informing the US embassy of Nyi Nyi’s arrest, the junta spent a week denying him L
food and water, keeping him awake around the clock, and repeatedly beating him. These actions are clear violations of both
Burma’s obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the international law prohibition against torture.
As if this flouting of its responsibilities under international law wasn’t enough, the junta continued to regularly deny Nyi Nyi P
consular access over the past five months. They also denied him access to lawyers and a public trial. They placed him in military
O
dog cell confinement for over a month. And on 10 February, they sentenced him to three years at hard labor in prison for sham
charges to punish him for being a democracy activist. Nyi Nyi’s treatment by the junta is shocking. But what is perhaps almost L
as shocking is the junta’s complete disregard for US diplomatic efforts on Nyi Nyi’s behalf. Instead of responding to requests for I
access to lawyers for Nyi Nyi, the junta denied him a public trial. Instead of responding to demands it stop torturing him and
provide him regular consular access, the junta moved Nyi Nyi into solitary confinement and said he would be denied all family T
visits going forward. The US and the international community appear satisfied to allow the junta’s horrific treatment of its own I
citizens to continue with impunity. In addition to Nyi Nyi and his mother, there are over 2,100 political prisoners in Burma. Most C
famous, of course, is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, general-secretary of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party
and also the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. The litany of the junta’s crimes against its people matches A
few other nations from any time period. The junta is waging a war against Burma’s ethnic minorities. Since 1990, it has L
destroyed over 3,000 villages, and rapes, tortures, and murders these minorities. The number of internally displaced persons is
overshadowed only by the more than one million refugees who have fled to neighboring countries. The Burmese junta is one of
the most repressive regimes in the world. This is why it is critical that the US, United Nations, and international community P
engage with the Burmese regime to seek and secure national reconciliation and a restoration of democracy. However, the junta R
must first understand that engagement is only possible if it operates within the international norms of acceptable behavior in
how it treats its own people and conducts its foreign relations. The junta must realize that the torture and illegal imprisonment I
of an American for his democracy advocacy will not be tolerated by the US and the international community. If Burma wishes to S
engage with the US, or any other nation, it cannot continue to act with impunity. The human rights of foreign nationals, not to
O
mention its own, must be respected. We urge president Obama and secretary Clinton personally to call on junta leader Than
Shwe to immediately release Nyi Nyi Aung. We know that the Burmese junta doesn’t care about the lives of its own people -- N
we can only hope that the US government will be able to make Burma care about one of its own. Jared Genser is president of E
Freedom Now and international pro bono counsel to Nyi Nyi Aung.
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U.S. citizen in Burma is sentenced to three years in E

prison Feb 11, 2010 ( Bangkok Post) By Tim Johnston A

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• A Burmese court on Wednesday sentenced a Montgomery County activist to three years of L
hard labor, drawing an angry response from U.S. officials who called the allegations against
the man "politically motivated."
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• Nyi Nyi Aung, 40, is a Burmese-born U.S. citizen. He was arrested in September when he
returned to Rangoon to visit his mother, an imprisoned democracy activist suffering from O
cancer. L
• The government initially accused Nyi Nyi Aung of trying to foment political unrest, a charge I
he denied. He was eventually convicted of carrying a forged identity card and undeclared U.S. T
currency and for not renouncing his Burmese nationality when he became a U.S. citizen.
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• Nyi Nyi Aung's attorneys and supporters, including the Washington-based rights group
Freedom Now, said he was arrested before he reached the customs checkpoint at the airport C
and had no chance to declare his currency. They said that even Burmese authorities admitted A
there was no process to allow people such as Nyi Nyi Aung to renounce their citizenship at L
the country's embassies.
• U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Mei condemned the ruling and urged the government to P
release Nyi Nyi Aung, the Associated Press reported. Referring to Nyi Nyi Aung by his legal
name on his U.S. passport, Mei said: "We are deeply concerned by the unjustified conviction. R
We believe the charges against Kyaw Zaw Lwin were politically motivated." I
• Nyi Nyi Aung is a well-known democracy activist. After fleeing Burma, also known as S
Myanmar, Nyi Nyi Aung was granted refuge in the United States. O
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February 11, 2010
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WASHINGTON, DC – House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the L
following statement today after Maryland resident Nyi Nyi Aung was sentenced to
three years in prison with hard labor in his native Burma. Aung, an activist for human P
rights in Burma, was arrested at a Burmese airport in September when trying to visit O
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his mother, a democracy activist also in prison:
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“I am disappointed with the Burmese junta’s decision today, and urge them I
to release Nyi Nyi Aung immediately. Yesterday, the State Department said C
his conviction was unjust and the charges were politically motivated. As the A
United States seeks a new approach to Burma, their treatment of Nyi Nyi
Aung – a resident of my state of Maryland – seriously hinders that L
effort. Reports of torture and denying him access to consular services
through the U.S. Embassy is completely unacceptable. I will continue to P
work with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman and R
the Obama Administration to secure the release of Nyi Nyi Aung.” I
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Additional coverage E
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• Myanmar urged to free jailed US rights activist (AFP) L
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i9JgKg8gYC1PwOnZdPf3b3Z9_ynw L

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• Burmese-American Activist Gets Three Years in Prison O
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=17776&Submit=Submit L
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• U.S. Urges Myanmar to Free Citizen, Says Charges T

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‘Unjustified’ C
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aHktd_LcH9t8
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• Jailed and tortured in Myanmar Paying the price P

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15498377 R
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Has been moved
• confirmed with the Prison Department that Nyi Nyi Aung was
indeed moved to a prison in Pyay, about a half-day’s drive
north of Rangoon, on Feb. 11.

• No explanation was given.

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Photo album
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STOP CIVIL WAR

Bangkok, Thailand
Preparing package for
Free Burma Act
Washington, D.C.
Against Burma junta’ team to the World Bank

Woodley Park, Washington, D.C.

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FREE all political leaders and prisoners

In front of Burma Junta’s embassy

At the 60th Birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Freedom March For Burma
Mother: Daw Sann Sann Tin, aged 60, is in Meikhtila prison in Mandalay division. She was sentenced to
nine years imprisonment in November 2008.

Cousin: Thet Thet Aung, aged 32, she was sentenced to 65 years imprisonment for her involvement in
the Saffron Revolution as a young member of 88 Generation Students movement. She has to serve her
sentence in the remote Myingyan prison, 396 miles away from Rangoon.
Brother in law: Thet Thet Aung’ husband Chit Ko Lin, also a member of the 88 Generation Students
group, was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment and sent to Pakokku prison in Magwe division.

Cousin: Noe Noe, aged 21, was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in 2008 for expressing her beliefs
about freedom and democracy and she has been sent to Irrawaddy Division’s Ma-ubin prison to serve her
sentence.
Aunt: Daw Su Su Kyi, mother of Thet Thet Aung, as also taken by the military authorities for three
weeks, and faced with interrogation. She was later released and now she is the one who visits four
family members in different prisons in Burma on a monthly basis. Thet Thet Aung and Chit Ko Lin
have three children.
Photos thanks to
Ko Moe Zaw Aung & Ma Kaythi Aung Family

Poeziwa 2010