A year after thousands of monks took to the streets of Burma’s towns and cities to protest against the tyrannical rule of the Military Junta were broadcast across the world via the internet, the Junta has shown that it will not tolerate any semblance of critical opinion being voiced over the World Wide Web.
Judge Daw Soe recently sentenced Nay Phone Latt to a total of twenty years and six months for possession of a banned video and having a blog to express his concerns about the increasingly difficulty of Burmese people to voice their opinions since the protests last year.
Nay was first arrested in January but was released, along with a handful of National League for Democracy (NLD) politicians, a few hours later but was arrested again a few days later. Since then he has been held at Insein Prison, infamous for grotesque treatment of its political prisoners.
Nay Latt’s mother wasn’t allowed into the courtroom to see her son get sentenced for a crime that she expected him to get ten to twelve years.
When he was sentenced to twenty years and six months it served as a shock to not just her but Nay’s lawyer as well.
“The blogger’s lawyer was himself jailed for criticising the special court’s procedures,” reports Reporters without Borders, who have also published that the celebrated poet Saw Wai has been sentenced to two years in prison for a poem that stated that Dictator Than Shwe is power crazy.
What does this mean for the Constitution that was rushed through regardless of Cyclone Nargis’ devastating impact on the country?
Well, a document that secures 110 out of the 440 seats for the military illustrates that the Junta are firmly in control and do planning to cave into the international pressure put on the country and the shuttle diplomacy of UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
The seemingly liberal and enlightened Constitution guarantees basic rights, such as freedom to form political parties and unions; the freedom of press; religion and the rights of minorities is a far cry from the laws used to sentence Nay Latt and Saw Wai.
With the long awaited visit of UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, pending, it is hoped that he can make some headway with a Junta determined to stonewall any progress to free Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from her twenty years’ house arrest, let alone grant the rights enshrined in the Constitution.
With the international media and public moving onto the cause de jour, the pressure has eased off of the secretive Junta. With the first anniversary of Nargis looming it seems as though the country has been in stasis with the Military not even wishing to pay lip service to their masterpiece (the Constitution), which took nearly twenty years to compete!
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20 Jahre Haft für Blogger Nay Phone Latt…
Der burmesische Blogger Nay Phone Latt ist am Montag zu 20 Jahren Haft verurteilt worden, weil er über die politischen und sozialen Missstände seines Landes bloggte. Das Verbot seines Blogs durch die Militärjunta hielt ihn allerdings nicht davon ab, we…
posted on November 11th, 2008 at 2:48 pm - #14062[...] Nay will be on Amnesty International’s agenda soon as well. In the meantime, keep posting, as Global Voices and Commettee To Protect Bloggers did so [...]
posted on November 11th, 2008 at 3:34 pm - #14065[...] mit den Protesten gegen die Militärjunta im vergangenen Jahr ist in Burma ein Internet-Blogger zu 20 Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Der 28-jährige Nay Phone Latt, ein ehemaliges Mitglied der Nationalen Liga für [...]
posted on November 11th, 2008 at 7:25 pm - #14069[...] Voices Online reports that: Nay Latt’s mother wasn’t allowed into the courtroom to see her son get sentenced for a [...]
posted on November 14th, 2008 at 9:33 pm - #14105[...] to circulate information not currently controlled by the Burmese Censorship Bureau. According to Global Voices: A year after thousands of monks took to the streets of Burma’s towns and cities to protest [...]
posted on November 15th, 2008 at 12:24 am - #14106[...] Monday a popular blogger and young entrepreneur was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for keeping defaced images of national leaders in his email [...]
posted on November 17th, 2008 at 2:57 am - #14122I have just started a General Than Shwe poetry competition to raise awareness about this. Why not drop by and make an entry: http://margosmaid.blogspot.com/2008/11/general-than-shwe-poetry-competition.html
posted on November 17th, 2008 at 2:04 pm - #14130[...] This extremely harsh punishment is seen as an attempt by the military junta to set an example and intimidate those who use new technologies to circulate information not currently controlled by the Burmese Censorship Bureau. According to Global Voices: [...]
posted on November 19th, 2008 at 3:18 pm - #14162[...] han sido distinguidos dos bloggers birmanos, Zarganar y Nay Phone Latt con el premio ciberdisidente. Ambos han sido condenados por la junta militar birmana a 45 y 20 años [...]
posted on December 4th, 2008 at 5:48 pm - #14373[...] many forms of censorship as well. Prominent bloggers and some journalists in Malaysia and Myanmar were arrested for refusing to toe the line set by the [...]
posted on December 26th, 2008 at 7:40 am - #14492