BURMA/MYANMAR

Political activists, human rights defenders, farmers, ethnic minorities and other civilians have disappeared after arrests, detentions, abductions and forced labor in Burma/Myanmar. The perpetrators of the disappearances are State authorities and the security forces of the military. Extra-legal arrests and detentions in order to extort money and resources¹ during which officials deny the incarceration or information about the locations of the incarcerated leads to situations where detainees are prone to disappearing. Arrested and detained individuals who are at risk of disappearing include those who have failed to pay military taxes and/or shares of crops.² Prisoners, who have been forced to undertake labor inside or outside of prisons from which military units profit, along with other civilian laborers seized by the military have gone missing.³ Reports of disappearances during forced labor are revealed from the testimonies of fellow prisoners/laborers who have managed to escape or are released from the labor camps and prisons.⁴

Legal/Institutional Guarantees

Burma/Myanmar is currently being ruled by a military junta. There is no National Human Rights Commission or other official bodies to investigate, report and redress the human rights situation within the country, including enforced and involuntary disappearances. Arbitrary decrees and trials within prisons and other places that are inaccessible to the legal council, family members of the accused and sometimes even the accused themselves prevent the application of the constitutional guarantees of the former constitution of the Union of Burma.

Present Status

International organizations and human rights agencies continue to face major impediments to autonomously operate and openly investigate the reports of enforced and involuntary disappearances and other human rights crime within Burma/Myanmar. No official data on missing persons are available from the authorities. 17 individuals in 2002 were reported to have disappeared while in government detention.⁵ Since August 2003, 4 or 5 youths have been reported missing and are believed to have been forcefully seized by State agents for ?military portering?.⁶ 100 individuals are estimated to have disappeared after a violent attack against an opposition caravan, including Aung San Suu Kyi on 30 May 2003 in Depayin.⁷ Aung San Suu Kyi herself disappeared for some days before being discovered within a prison in the country and later reappearing after being ?released? for house arrest. The actual number of people who disappeared during this event may be much higher. Currently, the families and relatives of the disappeared are prohibited from forming any independent organization to press the authorities for any information about their disappeared family members.