Big Rise in Number of Burma’s Political Prisoners

Shah Paung
The Irrawaddy News
www.irrawaddy.org
January 31, 2008


The number of political prisoners behind bars in Burma increased last year to at least 1,864, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

A statement issued on Thursday said the figure—an increase of 706 over the 2006 total—did not include all those arrested during and after the September demonstrations.

The AAPP drew particular attention to the regime’s practice of arresting relative of wanted political activists as a way of forcing them to give themselves up.

Five such cases, involving eight relatives of wanted activists, were documented by the AAPP.

The arrested relatives were identified as: the mother and mother-in-law of Thet Thet Aung; the wife of Nyein Thit, a poet and former political prisoner; Thein Aye, a friend of Di Nyein Lin, leader of the All Burma Federation of Student’s Union; Peter and Nu Nu Swe, parents of Si Thu Maung; and the father and brother of U Gambira, a leader of the All Burma Monks Alliance.

Nyein Thit’s wife Khin Marlar and U Gambira’s father, Min Lwin, had subsequently been released.

The AAPP charged that the political prisoners were not getting enough food or fresh drinking water. They were not being provided with bedding and blankets and were being kept in overcrowded and poorly ventilated facilities.

“Detainees were tortured by being forced to lie face down on the ground while answering questions,” the AAPP said. “In one case, two detainees were made to slap each other’s face repeatedly both as a means of humiliation and torture.”

Medical care was also being denied, claimed the AAPP—saying it had documented the deaths of at least 30 prisoners in Taungoo prison alone. “Many died as a result of tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS acquired in the prison.”

AAPP said four political prisoners were currently in solitary confinement in Insein Prison. Their families reported that they had been condemned to solitary confinement after a request for proper medical care had been sent to junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, the BBC Burmese Service reported.