Irrawaddy-Apr 26
Every parliamentarian who is in jail in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is locked up in Myanmar and all but one of them had been members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), according to a network of current and former ASEAN parliamentarians. “Myanmar remains the worst country when it comes to jailing members of parliament, with all 74 of those detained in the region being held there,” ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said in its annual “Parliamentarians at Risk” report released on Thursday. The annual report highlights human rights violations faced by parliamentarians in ASEAN. All but one of the 74 parliamentarians jailed in Myanmar by the junta are from the Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy (NLD), which formed the civilian government ousted by a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. The fact that NLD MPs have been overwhelmingly targeted demonstrates that their imprisonment is politically motivated, APHR said. The NLD won a landslide victory in the 2020 election, shortly before the coup. “Many of the ousted parliamentarians are continuing their work in hiding, either inside Myanmar or abroad, because if found by the military they are at risk of detention, torture, and even death,” the report said. “Some have seen their family members harassed and their properties seized by the military.” Myanmar’s national, regional and state parliaments have been suspended since the coup, and dozens of their members have been arrested. As of March 28, 2024, there were 74 parliamentarians in detention in Myanmar, the report said, citing data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/network-of-asean-parliamentarians-says-only-myanmar-is-locking-up-lawmakers.html
