SPDC: Lesson from animal trials

[Tanpyan@xxxxxxx]

SPDC: Lesson from animal trials
by Lu Libra (10-9-99)

  In SPDC's Burma, most of the prisoners of conscience were routinely
tortured and beaten up when arrested. There was no trial.  Even if there
is a trial, it would be held in jail without defence lawyer and the
judge will be under the complete control of Khin Nyunt's malevolent
intelligence service (MIS) whose pervasive influence have made a mockery
of Burma's judicial system.  

  The latest example is the case of James Rupert Mawdsley who was
arrested on Tuesday (31-8-99) after crossing into the border town of
Tachilek in eastern Burma. And a court in Tachilek sentenced him to 17
years imprisonment the same day he was arrested for illegal entry and
carrying pro-democracy leaflets. The fate of British activist Rachel
Goldwyn, 28, arrested on 7 September, after singing democracy songs in a
market in Rangoon, is still unknown. Hundreds of Burmese protesters were
arrested in the past weeks.

 There is almost no legal help for political prisoners most of whom were
sentenced to long term imprisonments without trial.  Unlike the victims
of Nazi persecution during the Second World War, the victims of SPDC's
judiciary, which is comtrolled by MIS, are not entitled to compensation,
reparation or any form of legal redress. Apart from the visits from
their family members there is no support network whatsoever for these
political prisoners. 

  Jails in Burma are noted for poor food, overcrowded cells, hard
labour, lack of medical care, and widespread mental and physical
torture.  Many prisoners have paralyzed, crippled, and died in custody.
A lot of people have contracted deadly diseases while in jail. Some
Buddhist monks were reported to have been sodomised and sent to labour
camps in front-lines areas where they succumbed to hardship and
injuries. 

  Unlike SPDC's Burma, animals standing trial in medieval Europe were
always provided with defence counsel. The correct legal formalities were
always observed whenever animals were hauled before the courts in
medieval Europe.  Domestic pets and livestock were usually tried in the
common criminal courts, while wild animals fell within the Church's
jurisdiction. In France alone 92 cases of animals were tried between
1120 and 1740 when a trial ended with the execution of a cow. In 1457 at
Lavegny in France, a sow (a fully grown female pig) and her six piglets
were taken to court and charged with having murdered and partly eaten a
child. The sow was found guilty and condemned to death, but the piglets
were acquitted because the defense lawyer, citing their age and the
absence of direct proof connecting them with the crime, successfully
pleaded for mercy.

   Unlike SPDC's summary justice system, the processes of law were very
slow at the best of times in medieval Europe. Part of the problem lay in
getting animals to obey summonses. Every effort was made to correctly
indentify the accused. At one famous case in Autun, France, the local
rats were accused of wilful damage. The trial of rats in 1521 is
celebrated in French legal history because it was in that case the great
lawyer Bartholomew Chassanee made his name. He was appointed as defence
counsel of the rats and threw himself into the fight with both skill and
passion. 

   Why had his clients not appeared before the court on the appointed
day? Chassanee first excused them on the grounds that the summons were
incorrectly phrased, and should have specified all the rats of the
diocese. Then he successfully pleaded for an extension of the deadline
on the grounds that many of his clients were elderly and infirm rats for
whom special arrangement had to be made. When the defendants failed to
turn up for the third hearing, he explained that the rats were in fact
most anxious to appear before the court but were being frightened off by
the large number of malevolent cats kept by the plaintiffs. The court
accepted his plea. But the people of Autun did not agree to bind over
their cats to keep the peace. So the case was dismissed and Chassanee
and the rats won.

   Thus,before the SPDC and the Australian government set up a human
rights body in Burma they should first study how animals were tried in
medieval Europe and elevate the status of humans in Burma.

(by Lu Libra  10-9-99)