"Burma: Land Rights Activists Are Newest Political Prisoners", 15 Aug 2015

Burmese authorities should immediately stop using abusive laws on association and expression to halt the activities of land rights activists, Human Rights Watch said...The recent arbitrary arrest of a prominent land rights advocate in Karen State exemplifies the government’s persecution of vocal opponents of land grabs by officials and their business associates...[O]n August 7...police arrested U Saw Maung Gyi, a leader of the 88 Karen Generation Student Organization. The authorities charged him under...the Unlawful Associations Act for allegedly providing assistance to a man that police claim is a Karen insurgent. U Saw Maung Gyi faces a two-to-three-year prison sentence if convicted...[O]n that same night the police arrested nine farmers and activists who were sleeping at the organization’s office and fined them for staying overnight outside their home district without government permission. “The Burmese authorities’ repeated use of oppressive laws against land rights activists is a heavy-handed attempt to silence them,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These activists are forced to run a gauntlet of government intimidation, arrests – and now, trumped-up charges – just to try and help villagers stay on their land...Land rights activists in Karen State persist under especially repressive conditions as few groups feel they can safely speak out against government abuses without facing retaliation...The arrests in Karen State mirror broader patterns elsewhere in Burma in which land activists are identified, targeted, and silenced...Land activists are increasingly becoming Burma’s new political prisoners.”