Dear Mr Salil Shetty,
We, the members of Amnesty International (AI), human rights activists, and individuals, are writing to you to raise our serious concerns regarding the intervention by the international secretariat, specifically by Benjamin Zawacki, AI Southeast Asia researcher and Donna Guest, the Asia-Pacific deputy director to block the dialogue that was planned to be held by AI Malaysia on the issue of human rights violations and the case in the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thailand.
On April 23, 2011, AI Malaysia planned to hold a dialogue with Robert Amsterdam, the lawyer representing the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship. Amsterdam had previously represented many individuals and human rights defenders including Dr Chee Soon Juan, a Singaporean human rights defender and the secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party. AI had taken action to protect Dr Chee’s right to freedom of expression.
Amsterdam had filed a case at the ICC against Abhisit Vejajiva-led government for ordering the military crackdown in April-May 2010 which resulted in the deaths of 92 people, mostly civilians, and 2,000 people injured.
AI Malaysia received strong instructions from the international secretariat demanding them to cancel the dialogue session. The action is a clear violation of the very principle central to human rights, which is on freedom of expression and opinion, toleration of different opinions and ideas, and fighting against culture of impunity. This action further violates the core values of AI which is international solidarity, the universality and indivisibility of human rights.
By directing AI Malaysia to cancel the holding of such event, Amnesty International is taking the same approach by the Thai government in banning Amsterdam from entering Thailand, and thus violating Amsterdam the right to exercise his freedom of expression.
We, as the members of Amnesty International, human rights activists, and individuals, urgently ask you as the secretary general to investigate the interference made by Zawacki and Guest, including the explanations for their actions.
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