The 58-page report, The Repression of ethnic minority activists in Myanmar, draws on accounts from more than 700 activists from the seven largest ethnic minorities, including the Rakhine, Shan, Kachin, and Chin, covering a two-year period from August 2007.
Arrests of ethnic minority activists
The authorities have arrested, imprisoned, and in some cases tortured or even killed ethnic minority activists. Minority groups have also faced extensive surveillance, harassment and discrimination when trying to carry out their legitimate activities.
"Ethnic minorities play an important but seldom acknowledged role in Myanmar’s political opposition," said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar expert. "The government has responded to this activism in a heavy-handed manner, raising fears that repression will intensify before the elections."
Many activists told Amnesty International that they faced repression as part of a larger movement, as in Rakhine and Kachin States during the 2007 Buddhist monk-led "Saffron Revolution". Witnesses described the killings and torture of monks and others by the security forces during its violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations in those states.
Others said they were pursued for specific actions, such as organizing 
an anti-dam signature campaign in Kachin State.
Detained for "NO"
"It is very timely of Amnesty International to put focus on the role of ethnic minorities’ activists as they play a very important role in Burmese civil society. Not only as contributors to big movements as the Saffron revolution in September 2007 or mobilizing against the planned election this year, but in addressing important issues in their home area," said Inger Lise Husøy (picture on the left), director of the Norwegian Burma Committee for humanrightshouse.org.
Even relatively simple expressions of political dissent were met with punishment as when Karenni youths were detained for floating small boats on a river with "No" (to the 2008 draft Constitution) written on them.
"Activism in Myanmar is not confined to the central regions and urban centres. Any resolution of the country’s deeply troubling human rights record has to take into account the rights and aspirations of the country’s large population of ethnic minorities," said Benjamin Zawacki.
More than 2,100 political prisoners, including many from ethnic minorities, languish in Myanmar’s jails in deplorable conditions. Most are prisoners of conscience who have expressed their beliefs peacefully.
AI – release prisoners of conscience
Amnesty International urged the government to lift restrictions on freedom of association, assembly, and religion in the run-up to the elections; to release immediately and unconditionally all prisoners of conscience and to remove restrictions on independent media to cover the campaigning and election process.
Amnesty International called on Myanmar’s neighbours in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the People´s Republic of China, Myanmar’s biggest international supporter, to push the government to ensure that the people of Myanmar will be able to freely express their opinions, gather peacefully, and participate openly in the political process.
"The government of Myanmar should use the elections as an opportunity to improve its human rights record, not as a spur to increase repression of dissenting voices, especially those from the ethnic minorities," said Benjamin Zawacki (picture on the right).
This year, Myanmar will hold its first national and local elections in two decades.
In 1990, two years after mostly peaceful anti-government protests resulted in the deaths of at least 3,000 demonstrators, the National League for Democracy (NLD) and a coalition of ethnic minority parties resoundingly won national elections.
The military government ignored the results, however, and continued their long-standing campaign against the political oppositio
n.
Myanmar’s most well-known human rights activist, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the NLD, has been under some form of detention for over 15 of the last 20 years.
In 2007, monks from ethnic minority Rakhine State initiated country-wide demonstrations against the government’s economic and political policies, in what has become known as the Saffron Revolution.
Referendum with 99 percent turnout
In May 2008, a week after Cyclone Nargis devastated the country, the government insisted on holding a referendum on the draft constitution. The official results were that 99 percent of the electorate had gone to the polls, 92.4 percent of whom had voted in favour. While the 2008 Constitution potentially allows for greater representation in local government, it ensures that the military will continue to dominate the national government.
Ethnic minorities constitute some 35-40 percent of the country’s population, and form the majority in the seven ethnic minority states. Each of the country’s largest seven ethnic minorities has engaged in armed insurgencies against the government, some of which continue to date.
"The ethnic areas contain much of the country’s rich natural resources, as teak, gems and minerals. Environmental damage and human rights violations follow in the wake of the regime’s crave for access and control of valuable resources. That local activists speak out about what is happening is very important, such as the junta’s vast plans for building dams on the Salween river. It ruins the livelihood of thousands of villagers. Another example is the building of a parallel gas and oil pipeline from the west coast of Burma over the mainland to the People´s Republic of China, known as the Shwe project. We know from previous projects that the construction will result in environmental damage and serious human rights violations. We know this because people in these areas dare to speak out. We use this information ourselves in addressing the Norwegian Pension Fund’s investments in companies involved in the Shwe project, as well as other projects. Clearly, activists from ethic minorities have a very important role in their own country as well as to make the international community act, " said Inger Lise Husøy, director of the Norwegian Burma Committee.
Amnesty International has documented serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity by the government in the context of the Myanmar army’s campaigns against ethnic minority insurgent groups and civilians.
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