OVER 11.000 DISPLACED, CIVILIANS KILLED IN LATEST BURMA ARMY ATTACKS ON KAREN.

 

Dear Friends,

 

I am writing to ask for your urgent prayers and action, as the situation in Karen State grows increasingly serious. The Free Burma Rangers have described the current situation in Western and Northern Karen State as “worse than at any time since the offensives of 1997”.

In the past few weeks alone, over 11, 000 people have been forced to flee their villages, because of the Burma Army’s attacks on civilians. Thousands are displaced in the jungles, without food, medicine or shelter. There is an urgent need for humanitarian aid, for rice and medical supplies for those who have been displaced.

On 27 March, the army launched an attack on a village in Western Karen State, as part of a sweep of the entire area. The Free Burma Rangers met with survivors. They found homes had been ransacked – rice and bamboo salt containers destroyed and their contents scattered.

They also discovered the mutilated bodies of victims from the attacks. Saw Po De, a 40 year old man was beheaded in Ker Der Gash village. A nine year old girl New Eh Ywa Paw was shot and her father and grandmother killed. At least 11 civilians have been shot dead.

A survivor of the attacks said, “The Burma Army waited in a prepared position to kill villagers. They waited until they were only 10 yards away and opened fire on a man carrying his mother, as well as the families and children behind him. What kind of people, what kind of system, can do this? A depraved one.”

The Free Burma Rangers also found another body of a victim killed in a more recent attack, which had been tortured. The report claims that one of his eyes had been pulled out and his nose cut off. His identity is yet unknown. It may be that he was captured and missing from another village in a different valley.

In a powerful visual depiction of Mr Son’s intended fate, a protestor was bound to a tree outside the Embassy with three strips of cloth, in imitation of a North Korean execution. His head was shrouded in a symbolically blood-stained cloth, giving a striking representation of the effect of the bullets typically fired by three expert shooters at the head, chest and stomach of victims of execution in North Korea

Another protest for Mr Son was held in South Korea earlier today. Twenty-four agencies lobbied the National Human Rights Commission to call for intervention to save the life of Son Jong Nam, and a letter and petition were presented by Mr Son’s brother, Son Jong Hoon.

The protest takes place on North Korea Freedom Day, on which numerous organizations are registering their profound concern at the severe human rights violations taking place in North Korea. Amongst the activities today, is a rally being held on Capitol Hill in Washington DC?

 

FRESH CALLS FOR GUARANTEES ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN ROMANIA AND BULGARIA

In Bulgaria, a major case involving the Bulgarian Orthodox Church continues to be unresolved, calling into question the implementation of reforms meant to ensure the rule of law in that country. In July 2004, the State Prosecutor’s Office sided with a faction of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church ordering church buildings and monasteries to be taken by force. This case is now being considered by the European Court of Human Rights.

            Priests, monks, and lay-workers were dragged out of their churches and monasteries as police stormed the buildings under an order from the Prosecutor’s Office; many were beaten and some suffered serious injuries.  More than 160 priests and monks found their churches and monasteries confiscated and have had no option but to hold mass and other religious ceremonies in the open air over the past year and a half

PROTEST TO STOP THE EXECUTION OF NORTH KOREAN JONG NAM

The appeal comes after Mr Son’s brother, Son Jong Hoon, received information via a relative. He reported: ‘My brother is sentenced to public execution and even family members cannot visit him’. The joint agency statement reports that Mr Son (48 is imprisoned in the basement of the National Security Agency in Pyongyang and is ‘practically dead from horrible torture’ .Mr Son defected from North Korea in 1997 with his wife, son and brother. He attended Church in China and became a Christian – a serious crime in North Korea. While his brother was successful in reaching South Korea in 2002, Son Jong Nam was repatriated in April 2001 and imprisoned for three years in the Ham-Gyung-Buk area prison camp in North Korea. He was released on parole in May 2004 after the intervention of influential contacts.    

He was expelled to Chongjin where he worked at a rocket research institute. In May 2004 Mr Son was able to meet his brother in China and return to North Korea. However the individual in Musan who helped him travel to China informed on him to the Musan National Security Agency. The National Security Office in Musan asked their colleagues in Pyongyang to arrest Mr Son and he was taken in by the secret police in January 2006 as he was leaving his younger sister’s house in Pyongyang.  Those close to him have been exiled from Pyongyang.

(Name withheld)... has gathered extensive first hand testimony from numerous torture victims and eyewitnesses of public execution, stated: ‘We are deeply concerned for the life and welfare of Mr Son Jong Nam. North Korea practices brutal torture and it is hard to imagine the pain and suffering that will already have been inflicted upon him. We urge the international community to match the bravery and boldness of those who have decided to take this unprecedented step of announcing this to the outside world. We hope that those in a position of influence will be unstinting in strongly urging the North Koreans to abort their plans to carry out this unjust execution.’  It is not known whether the execution has happened. Obtaining such information from inside North Korea is obviously a difficult and dangerous business