Interview with 88 Generation Student member Myo Yan Naung Thein
Unofficial AAPP translation of interview with Democratic Voice of Burma 23 September 2009
88 Generation Student member Myo Yan Naung Thein was released by the military government along with other prisoners. He was released from Thandwe prison in Arakan State. 35 year-old Myo Yan Naung Thein has suffered severely from a neurological disease that has left him unable to walk. He was arrested on 15 December 2007 and given a 2 year sentence, charged under section 505b of the Penal Code. He was released three months before the completion of his sentence. He said he was released from Thandwe prison on 19 September, and arrived at home on 21 September. “We were told in the afternoon of 18 September that we would be released. And they give us 1000 kyats (1$) for the traveling costs to get back home. But we weren’t released that day because they were waiting for a fax from the district local authority. So we were released on the morning of 19 September,” said Myo Yan Naung Thein.
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Media Statement – for immediate release
28 September 2009
Political Prisoners’ Rights Group: “Torture is state policy in Burma”
[Mae Sot, Thailand] The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) (AAPP) today strongly condemned the widespread ongoing use of torture against political detainees in Burma.
New testimony from political prisoners released under a general amnesty in Burma last week underlines the systematic patterns of abuse and torture of political detainees. In an interview with exile media group Democratic Voice of Burma, former student leader Myo Yan Naung Thein, who was arrested in December 2007, described being kidnapped by unknown assailants, hooded, and taken to an unknown location where he was brutally beaten. He was also denied proper medical treatment and is now unable to walk as a result. Read More »
Burma: Surge in Political Prisoners
Planned 2010 Elections Not Credible if Opposition Remains in Prison
September 16, 2009
(Washington, DC) – Burma’s military government has more than doubled the number of political prisoners in the past two years, including more than a hundred imprisoned in recent months, Human Rights Watch said today in a new report. Sentenced to long prison terms for their involvement in peaceful demonstrations in 2007, and for assisting civilians in the wake of the devastating Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the political prisoner population has reached more than 2,200.
The 35-page report, “Burma’s Forgotten Prisoners,” showcases dozens of prominent political activists, Buddhist monks, labor activists, journalists, and artists arrested since peaceful political protests in 2007 and sentenced to draconian prison terms after unfair trials. The report was released on September 16, 2009 at a Capitol Hill news conference hosted by Senator Barbara Boxer. Read More »
