Jaloon Htaw : ND Burma (Network For Human Rights Documentation – Burma) produced a report on November 8th, entitled, “Intimidation, Imprisonment and Repression; The road to military victory in the 2010 Elections,” to explain the Burmese government’s unfair actions during the election.
According to the report, starting ten months before the election, the Burmese people experienced human rights abuses that they were unable to reveal and speak about. In the past year, ND-Burma documented over 875 human rights violations. 247 of these violations are reported to have directly related to the elections.
“Before the election, the authority [Burmese government] carried out their tasks unfairly. The reasons ND-Burma released this report is to show the International Election Watch Organization, people who are interested in the election, and human rights organizations that the election is not free and fair,” explained Nai Aue Mon Management Board (ND-Burma).
According to the report, during the election period, the United Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) [Burmese government’s proxy party], threatened arrest of those voters who did not vote for USDP. They campaigned with threats, forced membership of the USDP for government employees, used regional militia to organize voters under the USDP, and used intimidation to divide the opposing parties.
The report researched 60 towns inside Kachin, Mon State, Kayin, Tenasserim Division, Irrawaddy, and Mandalay.
According to Nai Aue Mon, “The Burmese authority conducted an unscrupulous election. So our 13 different organizations [that gathered all the information for the report] researched many kinds of violations in the townships before the election including inability to speak and reveal the real situation.”
The USDP, which is supported by the SPDC, winning the elections will reveal the true actions of the Burmese government and the human rights and ethnic rights abuses the government committed during the pre-election and election period.
