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Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

February 17, 1998

Chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council
General Than Shwe c/o
Ministry of Defense
Signal Pagoda Road
Yangon, Union of Myanmar

Dear General:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest organization of natural and social scientists in the United States, and the world's largest federation of scientific organizations, with 140,000 individual members and 296 affiliated groups. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

On behalf of the Committee, we are writing to express our concern regarding the imprisonment of Mr. Thiha Thu, a third year physics student. Mr. Thiha was among 900 students arrested in February 1992 for participating in peaceful demonstrations on December 10 & 11, 1991, calling for the release of Nobel Prize winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and a transfer of military power to civilian authorities. It is our understanding that many individuals were arrested during the demonstrations, and the alleged ringleaders were taken to Military Intelligence where they were subjected to torture during their interrogations and forced to disclose the names of other demonstrators. We understand that Mr. Thiha was arrested in July 1992 in his hometown of Moulein in Mon State and sentenced by a military tribunal to fifteen years imprisonment. We also have received information indicating that in January 1993 his sentence was reduced to ten years.

Mr. Thiha reportedly was held in Insein prison in the Thi Thant section for political prisoners and transferred with other prisoners to either Thayet prison in Magway or Tharawaddy prison in the Bago division in January 1994. The Committee is concerned about Mr. Thiha's well being, as there have been reports of deaths, torture, and poor conditions in these detention centers.

We would like to point out that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees Mr. Thiha the right to life, liberty, and security of person (Article 3); freedom from arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile (Article 9); freedom of opinion and expression; (Article 19); and freedom of peaceful assembly and association (Article 20.1).

We urge you to exercise your good offices to assure that Mr. Thiha and others imprisoned solely for participating in peaceful demonstrations be released immediately and unconditionally. We welcome receiving any information concerning the charges, trial, and sentence, as well as the current status of Mr. Thiha.

We thank you for your attention to our concerns.


Sincerely,





Mary Gray Irving Lerch
Co-Chair Co-Chair
Committee for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Committee for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

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