Panel for fair trail of Myanmar detainees

Nandita Haksar, a lawyer, who spoke on behalf of the committee, told presspersons on Tuesday that the charge sheet against the 34 had been filed some six- and a half years after their detention in February 1998.

According to her, the prosecution would begin presenting its case in a Kolkata court on March 21. On its part, the Government of India, which arrested these men in the Andaman Islands back in 1998, has claimed that they were “gun runners,”

“Writing in a publication entitled “why are Burma’s Freedom Fighters Imprisoned in India?” the Indian National Army (INA) veteran, Col. Laksmi Sehgal, said she had been shocked to learn that the 34 had been lodged in the Andamans since 1998.

“They were at first held in Campbell Bay where their conditions of detention were totally in violation of basic norms of human rights. Later, they were shifted to the jail in Port Blair where they were denied all amenities…” Col. Sehgal wrote.

“We are aware that the case is in court and we do not wish to interfere in the judicial process. However, it has been brought to our attention by Burmese leaders in India and Indian human rights activists that these 34 men present in Presidency Jail [in Kolkata] are indeed freedom fighters, she argued.

According to Col. Sehgal, it was, indeed, an irony that Myanmar’s freedom fighters should fin themselves in an Indian jail.

“It is also very sad indeed that these men should be treated so badly in the jail in West Bengal. In fact, these men agreed to the transfer of their case from Port Blair to Kolkata because they had faith in the people of Bengal.”

A December 15, 2006 West Bengal Goevernment order that these accused not be allowed to move out of their prison since they had close links with “various terrorist outfits” was rescinded following public pressure on January 3, 2006.

Sources: THEHINDU