Burmese and Indian activists demand release of 34 ethnic rebels

Over 50 Burmese activists and their Indian supporters today staged a protest rally in Kolkata as the ethnic Arakan and Karen rebels, are currently lodged in Kolkata's Presidency Jail, and are being tried in the City Sessions Court.

At the rally activists demanded that India immediately release the ethnic rebels, as they have been held for the past 10 years without a proper trial that could ensure justice.

"They [the rebels] are not terrorists. They are freedom fighters of Burma, who were fighting the brutal military regime. So, we are calling for their immediate release. We are demonstrating here so that people coming to the court will know about them," said Kim, a spokesperson of the Burmese activists.

The 34 rebels, who were arrested on February 8, 1998, at Andaman and Nicobar Islands, were initially held for eight years in the island, without a proper trial.

Based on the appeal made by human rights activists, the Supreme Court of India in October 2006 ordered the transfer of the rebels to Kolkata's Presidency jail and to conduct a day to day trial at the City Sessions Court.

During the year-long trial at the City Sessions Court several key witnesses from the prosecutor's side failed to appear to testify, the defense counsel for the 34 rebels told Mizzima.

The trial, however, stopped abruptly when the City Sessions Court judge Ashim Kumar Roy was suddenly transferred. The trial was last held in September 2007.

"Actually there is no trial being held today. We moved an application before the court that the trial should restart or if this court has no power of holding the trial then the case should revert back to the concerned court for trial," Akshay Kumar Sharma, one of the defense counsels told Mizzima.

Sharma added that the court had ordered February 8 as the next date for argument on the application and for the Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI), the main prosecutor, to reply.

"It has been 10 years that they [the rebels] are languishing in jail and again the trial is halted because of lack of a judge. The trial has been halted for three to four months now. We are demanding the immediate resumption of the trial by appointing a new judge," Kim an activist said.

"Or else the case should be transferred to the high court," Kim added.

Despite submitting the application today, the defense counsel said the actual resumption of the trial may still take time.

Analyzing the hearings conducted throughout 2007, Sharma said with key witnesses from the prosecutors failing to appear, the case is in favour of the rebels, who claim to be freedom fighters and not gunner runners. They are unfortunate victims of India's Intelligence agency.

According to the rebels, they were double crossed by Indian Intelligence, who promised them the use of Landfall Island of Andaman and Nicobar as a base to fight the Burmese military junta in return for monitoring and sharing information on Chinese naval bases in Coco Island in the Bay of Bengal.

However, the rebels said, upon arrival on Landfall Island, the Indian intelligence killed their leaders and arrested them claiming that they were gun runners, who were supplying weapons to Indian insurgents operating in the Northeast India.