The United Nations has expressed alarm over the arrest of 18 doctors, mostly women, who are accused of helping treat members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition during a protest against military rule in Myanmar last year. The protesting doctors were demanding amnesty for political prisoners, including a prominent former political prisoner, Ko Ni, who was arrested in November 2017 for “links to terrorists” and is being held at a prison outside Yangon. Dr. Ko Ni’s son revealed to Reuters this week that the father had received a letter saying he was held in a prison or detention centre “under internal security regulations and on the charge of violating internal security laws.”
“We are deeply concerned about the health of Dr. Ko Ni in prison,” Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement.
“This is the latest in a long line of violations of Dr. Ko Ni’s rights that have already lasted years,” Egeland said. “His arrests have led to renewed violence against civilians. I call on the authorities to immediately bring Dr. Ko Ni’s arrest to an end.”
Speaking before a General Assembly session that began Wednesday, Myanmar’s U.N. Ambassador Hau Do Suan told reporters that Ko Ni’s “involvement in any way and under any circumstance is subject to investigation.” Hau Do Suan declined to say why Ko Ni was arrested, saying only that any policy decision related to suspects “will be only in the interest of the people.”
Journalists witnessed the arrest of the medical volunteers on Saturday night as they escorted a woman protesting against the military’s treatment of minorities.
“Soldiers, go to court” read the placards the women carried. Photographs of the arrest were shared on social media, with Reuters reporters witnessing the arrest. A senior police officer confirmed that 18 medical volunteers had been arrested and said they had been charged under Myanmar’s Internal Security Act. They were not allowed to speak to a journalist because police refused to give the doctors’ names, the officer said. Reuters could not immediately reach any of the medical volunteers by phone or email for comment.
The U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said that Ko Ni’s “deeply disturbing and unwarranted arrest is an attack on freedom of expression and association.”
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