The Human Rights Alert has issued a clarification regarding an article titled “Lady arrested from Khwairamband Keithel with Norwegian Passport is a Myanmar based armed militant” published in an eveninger on Sunday.
The news-report had gone viral in the social media attracting adverse comments from various quarters.
Human Rights Alert (HRA) in a statement said, the case of Mya Kyay Mon, a Norwegian citizen of Myanmar origin, was brought to the attention of HRA by the Myanmar language instructor of the Center for Myanmar Studies of Manipur University.
When the matter was brought to the attention of HRA, for the first time in 2022, she was already detained in the Imphal Central Jail. HRA did not know her before, nor does it have any prior contact with her.
HRA took up her case as a “woman in distress case” and informed the relevant section of the Royal Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi. Thereinafter she was issued a fresh Norwegian Passport as her old passport had expired.
The statement further said, upon her release on bail and not having a place to stay she contacted HRA for help. We assisted her to stay in a women's home run by an NGO, pending her trial in the court.
In the wake of the ethnic unrest in Manipur and when the NGO expressed their discomfort in keeping her, we organised an air ticket for her to go out of the state, it added.
The HRA statement said, we have been informed that she was summoned by the court to appear in her pending trial in Manipur. We had no prior contact with her before we met her in the jail in Manipur.
It added, we do not know her antecedents or background. HRA only provided legal aid and humanitarian services when requested by a woman in distress as per our mandate as an organisation defending human rights for all.
