Copies of the following letters to the Secretary-General of Amnesty International came into the hands of the military authorities and were printed by them in the official publication The Conspiracy of Treasonous Minions within the Myanmar Naing-ngan and Traitorous Cohorts Abroad, Rangoon, 1989, pp. 220–23.
I
24 September 1988
On 1 September Mr Heder of your organization spoke to my office here requesting firstly that Amnesty should be informed as soon as conditions in Burma have changed sufficiently to permit Amnesty staff to enter the country and secondly that Amnesty be kept informed of all new violations of human rights. As you are doubtless aware, the country has in recent weeks been subjected to such turmoil and suffering at the hands of the military regime that conditions have not so far allowed me to pursue contact with Amnesty.
I am writing now to suggest that there is a very practical way in which your organization can be of service to the cause of human rights in Burma. From next Tuesday the foreign ministers of the world will begin to address the General Debate of the United Nations Assembly. I and my associates who are struggling for the restoration of peace and democracy in Burma believe it is vital that as many ministers as possible should in their speeches express their gravest concern for the continued violation of basic human rights in Burma and in particular their unqualified condemnation of the way in which unarmed demonstrators, including school children and Buddhist monks, have been massacred in large numbers by the armed forces. We appeal to you to bring these matters to the urgent attention of the foreign ministers who are addressing the Debate under Item 4 of the Agenda and to urge them to make substantive reference in their speeches to the prevailing situation. For my part I shall today be raising this matter with the ambassadors of those nations represented in Burma. I would further urge you to communicate the substance of this letter to any other international organization with which you are in contact, such as the International Commission of Jurists, who might be in a position to influence the course of the General Debate.
Your assistance in this matter will earn your organization the gratitude of millions of people in Burma.
II
16 October 1988
On the subject of the continued violation of human rights in Burma we wish to submit to you the following facts which have been confirmed by numerous eyewitness reports.
On 15 October over six hundred men, mostly young students, were seized by the armed forces as they sat in teashops and eating stalls in Rangoon. Buses were stopped at checkpoints set up at frequent intervals in the streets, and young men who could not produce evidence of their employment as civil servants were taken away in military trucks. Furthermore, low-income housing areas were entered by troops, even during the hours of curfew, and men taken away.
All are believed to be taken to the front lines where the Burmese army is engaged in action against insurgent forces. Those seized in Rangoon in recent days are very likely being forced to act as so-called ‘porters’ to carry the rations and arms of the government troops. It is also widely believed that they are driven ahead of the troops in order to detonate the mines laid by the insurgent forces. A high percentage of government casualties are caused by such land mines. The Burmese army lacks mine detectors.
All this appears to be connected to reports we received about five days ago that on 6 October over five hundred people, mostly students in their early teens, were seen at the town of Pa-an, tied together in groups of two and three and guarded by the armed forces. When the people of the town attempted to give them food and water they were cursed by the soldiers, who told them not to bother feeding ‘those who are about to die’. They were kept overnight in the town hall and were taken off early the following morning in the direction of the continuing conflict.
The forced conscription of young men for service as ‘porters’ by the Burmese army is known to have taken place several times in recent years. However, this appears to be the first time it has actually taken place on the streets of Rangoon for all to see.
We request you to bring this news to the attention of all those concerned with the violation of human rights in Burma.