{"id":28951,"date":"2018-09-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/burma-letter-calls-for-journalists-release-4068\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:47:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:47:15","slug":"burma-letter-calls-for-journalists-release-4068","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/burma-letter-calls-for-journalists-release-4068\/","title":{"rendered":"Burma: Letter calls for journalists’ release"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thirty-five parliamentarians, former government ministers, diplomats and lawyers from around the world have issued an open letter<\/a> today calling for the immediate release of the two Burmese Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, jailed earlier this week<\/a> for seven years.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter also calls for the release of all remaining political prisoners in Burma, the reform or repeal of unjust legislation, and international action to end impunity for crimes against humanity in Burma, including the referral of a case to the International Criminal Court, following the release of the United Nations International Independent Fact-Finding Mission report last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signatories to the letter include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Former British Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Former Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Former Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell MP,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 United States Congressman Chris Smith<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Thailand\u2019s former Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Canada\u2019s former Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Lord Alton of Liverpool<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Rushanara Ali MP<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Former Miss World Canada Anastasia Lin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Founder of Hong Kong\u2019s Democratic Party Martin Lee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 South Korea\u2019s former Ambassador for Human Rights Jung-hoon Lee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Indian writer and activist John Dayal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Former United States Ambassador to Timor-Leste Grover Joseph Rees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Former chief prosecutor in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic Sir Geoffrey Nice QC<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Canadian human rights lawyer David Matas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7 Two former Chief Justices of the Constitutional Court in Indonesia, Professor Mahfud MD and Professor Jimly Asshiddiqie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter was also signed by members of parliament from Sweden, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines and Myanmar. A full list can be viewed aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They describe the imprisonment of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo as \u201ca grave miscarriage of justice which fundamentally undermines Burma\u2019s fragile democratisation\u201d. The reporters were, they argue, jailed simply for \u201cdoing their job of investigating and reporting atrocities committed by the military in Burma\u201d. Freedom of the press, they continue, \u201cis fundamental to democracy\u201d and \u201cthe refusal to acknowledge the truth, the concerted efforts to hide the truth, and the imprisonment of two young men for reporting the truth are all indications that Burma is continuing in the ways of repression and lies favoured by past military regimes \u2026 No democracy can be built on such bloodshed and lies. It is Burma\u2019s Generals, not its journalists, who should be on trial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedict Rogers, CSW\u2019s East Asia Team Leader, said: \u201cWe welcome this letter, which is signed by distinguished politicians, diplomats and lawyers from countries across Asia, Europe and North America, as a call for the immediate release of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, along with all political prisoners in Burma, the reform or repeal of all unjust laws in Burma, and action to bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to justice and end impunity in Burma. We hope the Government of Burma, and the international community, listens to this appeal.\u201d<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes to Editors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The letter can be read in full aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thirty parliamentarians, former government ministers, diplomats and lawyers from around the world have issued an open letter today calling for the immediate release of the two Burmese Reuters journalists jailed earlier this week.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43089,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[129,128],"class_list":["post-28951","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-burma-myanmar","regions-east-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39536,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28951\/revisions\/39536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28951"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=28951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}