Showing posts with label Myanmar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Myanmar. Show all posts

Jun 14, 2010

Burma Tweets June 14, 2010

An enlargeable map of the BurmaImage via Wikipedia


  1. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall #Arakanese allege bias at #UNHCR #Malaysia #refugee office: http://bit.ly/bYWOSG via @addthis #detainees #burma
  2. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall #Ranong #migrant #nationality #check centre unveiled: http://bit.ly/cqnkGA via @addthis #burma #thailand #mon
  3. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall #Suu #Kyi ‘happy with party unity’: http://bit.ly/dAkPDS via @addthis #nld #burma
  4. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall Sons of top generals handed #fuel #station #permits: http://bit.ly/b9xAiE via @addthis #burma #crony #companies #corruption
  5. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall White Gold Rush: http://bit.ly/c9exUB via @addthis #china #yunnan #northern #burma #rubber #concessions #wa #kachin
  6. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall #Caste Out: http://bit.ly/doi1Y9 via @addthis #india #burma #refugees #chin #poverty #discrimination
  7. JohnAMacDougall Joh

    numerounoImage by deepchi1 via Flickr

    nAMacDougall The Emperor Looks to The Future: http://bit.ly/bN3BIG via @addthis #burma #than #shwe #tatmadaw #internal #divisions #power #preservation
  8. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall The Struggle Goes on: http://bit.ly/9LzTxG via @addthis #burma #nld #tin #oo #interview #future
  9. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall The Snake Sheds Its Skin: http://bit.ly/bBIIjS via @addthis #burma #tatmadaw #military #rule #strategy
  10. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall Regime ‘Destroying #Economy’ Ahead of Elections: http://bit.ly/ahitvP via @addthis #burma #research #reports
  11. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall Police Question Missile Expert Defector's Family: http://bit.ly/cAnwRx via @addthis #burma #nuclear #weapons #interrogations
  12. JohnAMacDougall JohnAMacDougall Pressure Off #Ceasefire Groups for Now: http://bit.ly/c6wTk3 via @addthis #burma #kio #uwsa #china #border

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Jun 4, 2010

Burma is taking steps toward nuclear weapons program

Naypyidaw: Burma's secret new capitalImage by ISN Security Watch via Flickr

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 4, 2010; A08

Burma has begun secretly acquiring key components for a nuclear weapons program, including specialized equipment used to make uranium metal for nuclear bombs, according to a report that cites documents and photos from a Burmese army officer who recently fled the country.

The smuggled evidence shows Burma's military rulers taking concrete steps toward obtaining atomic weapons, according to an analysis co-written by an independent nuclear expert. But it also points to enormous gaps in Burmese technical know-how and suggests that the country is many years from developing an actual bomb.

The analysis, commissioned by the dissident group Democratic Voice of Burma, concludes with "high confidence" that Burma is seeking nuclear technology, and adds: "This technology is only for nuclear weapons and not for civilian use or nuclear power."

"The intent is clear, and that is a very disturbing matter for international agreements," said the report, co-authored by Robert E. Kelley, a retired senior U.N. nuclear inspector. Officials for the dissident group provided copies of the analysis to the broadcaster al-Jazeera, The Washington Post and a few other news outlets.

Hours before the report's release, Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) announced that he was canceling a trip to Burma, also known as Myanmar, to await the details. "It is unclear whether these allegations have substantive merit," Webb, who chairs a Senate Foreign Relations panel on East Asia, said in a statement released by his office. "[But] until there is further clarification on these matters, I believe it would be unwise and potentially counterproductive for me to visit Burma."

There have been numerous allegations in the past about secret nuclear activity by Burma's military rulers, accounts based largely on ambiguous satellite images and uncorroborated stories by defectors. But the new analysis is based on documents and hundreds of photos smuggled out of the country by Sai Thein Win, a Burmese major who says he visited key installations and attended meetings at which the new technology was demonstrated.

The trove of insider material was reviewed by Kelley, a U.S. citizen who served at two of the Energy Department's nuclear laboratories before becoming a senior inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency. Kelley co-wrote the opposition group's report with Democratic Voice of Burma researcher Ali Fowle.

Among the images provided by the major are technical drawings of a device known as a bomb-reduction vessel, which is chiefly used in the making of uranium metal for fuel rods and nuclear-weapons components. The defector also released a document purporting to show a Burmese government official ordering production of the device, as well as photos of the finished vessel.

Other photographs show Burmese military officials and civilians posing beside a device known as a vacuum glove box, which also is used in the production of uranium metal. The defector describes ongoing efforts on various phases of a nuclear-weapons program, from uranium mining to work on advanced lasers used in uranium enrichment. Some of the machinery used in the Burmese program appears to have been of Western origin.

The report notes that the Burmese scientists appear to be struggling to master the technology and that some processes, such as laser enrichment, likely far exceed the capabilities of the impoverished, isolated country.

"Photographs could be faked," it says, "but there are so many and they are so consistent with other information and within themselves that they lead to a high degree of confidence that Burma is pursuing nuclear technology."

A Washington-based nuclear weapons analyst who reviewed the report said the conclusions about Burma's nuclear intentions appeared credible. "It's just too easy to hide a program like this," said Joshua H. Pollack, a consultant to the U.S. government.

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May 15, 2010

Burma Junta Hampers Water Aid

2010-05-14

Burma’s military government hinders aid during a severe drought.

Local resident

In a photo provided by a local resident, opposition National League for Democracy party members and other private donors distribute drinking water in Pegu, 50 miles north of Rangoon, May 13, 2010.

BANGKOK—Burma is suffering from a major water shortage during the annual dry season, but authorities are slowing relief efforts, according to residents in the hardest-hit regions of the country.

Residents said the Burmese military government is attempting to project an image of maintaining control over the situation, even as the drought has led to several deaths in Rangoon and Pegu divisions.

They added that the junta-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) is refusing to allow some aid donations and is forcing organizations that provide relief to mark their vehicles with the USDA flag.

A young man from Dala township said local authorities were questioning aid workers and taking photographs of people who were distributing water earlier in the week.

“USDA members stopped donors’ cars and asked them to place their flag on their vehicles. If the donors don't place their flag on the car, they won't be allowed to distribute water to the local people. They said this was a directive issued by their high-ranking officials,” the young man said.

“Some donors placed the USDA flag on their cars. Others refused and drove their cars on another route. But now there are fewer donors in this township, and many monasteries are facing water shortages,” he said.

“Local authorities are also distributing water, but they are only assisting their family members. They haven’t distributed water to the people. They even deny people water when they are asked for it.”

A relief worker in Kwunchangone township said many villages in the area are also suffering from drought and that the water distributed there is not enough to meet demand.

“Many villages in the area are suffering from severe water shortages after an accelerated evaporation of Burma’s ponds and reservoirs,” the worker said.

“The donors have been questioned by the authorities. The government cannot help the people, but they also don't want others to provide aid. They are suspicious of well-wishers who try to help the people,” he said.

“We are also afraid of an outbreak of disease because of the lack of drinking water and basic hygiene. There is no electricity in the city. It is difficult to pull water from the wells. How do we get water without electricity? We all have many problems.”

Government response

BurmaWaterShortage051410.jpg
Drought-affected areas of Burma. Credit: RFA
Burma's military government, which calls the country Myanmar, released a statement acknowledging that abnormal heat had dried up lakes in Rangoon division, leaving locals with a shortage of drinking water.

The statement said that a large number of water tankers had been sent out around the region to supply water to people in need and that authorities are tapping underground wells in urban wards with the help of citizen aid workers to meet previous levels of water consumption.

In a May 13 article published in an official newspaper, the government said that some residents of western Magway division and central Mandalay division were hospitalized due to high temperatures.

Of 11 hospitalized Magway division residents, seven died and four are receiving ongoing treatment, while no deaths have been reported from the 14 people hospitalized in Mandalay division, it said.

The article said that the Ministry of Health is issuing daily instructions on steps the public can take to protect themselves against high temperature via TV, radio, newspapers, and journals. It cited an “unnecessary loss of lives as some failed to follow the notifications.”
Not enough done

But aid workers said that the government hasn't done enough to warn the public and to provide them with relief following the weeks of drought.

Myo Myint Thein, a physician in Rangoon division, said the elderly are particularly vulnerable and need to be given better instruction on how to protect themselves from the heat.

“Old people, especially between 60 and 70, have died of heat. Some people who drink alcohol have also died. The death toll has reached 37 within 12 to 13 days. The number is a bit high,” he said.

“People lack awareness [of how to react] and they put wet blankets on their body to prevent heat. This is the wrong thing to do. You should not do things like that in this heat. Especially people in rural areas don't know about it. The death toll is only the number of people who died in urban areas.”

Shwe Zee Kwet, a donor from the Free Funeral Service, an organization that provides burial services to the poor, said the public has been forced to act on its own to deal with the water shortage crisis.

“We went to Pyawbwe village near Thakala Village in Bago division. They don't have safe drinking water. They only have polluted water. All the lakes are dried up. Villagers are trying to get water by digging wells, but there is no drinking water in them,” Shwe Zee Kwet said.

“People from Bago division are distributing water by themselves. We gave them plastic containers to bring water. And they contributed their water and cars. We are also providing fuel and other expenses to people who distribute water in villages,” she said.

“We try to distribute water twice a day, but sometimes we can do so only once a day.”

Chairman of the Free Funeral Service Kyaw Thu said he had donated 1 million kyat (U.S. $156,000 according to the official exchange rate) from his prize money as aid to assist those in need.

“Yesterday the funeral service took care of 70 dead people. Normally we provide services for 40-50 people each day. Now the number has reached 70. Old people, young car drivers, and rickshaw drivers are dying from heat stroke.”

Nargis precedent

Burma’s military government is wary of both international and domestic aid groups and has routinely blocked relief efforts seeking to assist citizens affected by natural disasters.

The junta blocked aid and imprisoned members of NGOs providing assistance to homeless Burmese after Cyclone Nargis tore through the south of the country in 2007, leveling infrastructure and killing some 140,000 people.

Villagers in the worst-hit regions said they have been unable to rebuild their lives in the wake of the storm, which left millions with no home or livelihood.

Local and overseas aid workers said Burma’s ruling military junta deliberately blocked aid to victims of Nargis, and failed to ensure that fields were ploughed in time for the harvest. It has also jailed a number of private citizens, some of them well-known, for aiding cyclone victims.

The junta at the time was preoccupied with a national referendum on a new Constitution. It went ahead with the vote May 10, and announced that the constitution had been overwhelmingly approved. Amid an international outcry, the junta let relief agencies into the country almost four weeks after the storm.

Original reporting by Nay Rein Kyaw, Nay Linn and Aung Moe Myint for RFA’s Burmese service. Burmese service director: Nyein Shwe. Produced by Susan Lavery. Translated by Htar Htar Myint. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

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Jan 12, 2010

An Interim Assessment of Evolving U.S.-Burma/Myanmar Relations

The 14 states and divisions of Burma.Image via Wikipedia

http://vimeo.com/8443859 (video)

December 17, 2009, Professor David I. Steinberg

(Click to enlarge) Professor David I. Steinberg discusses U.S.-Burma relations.

(Washington D.C.) December 17– Though a U.S. policy review has led to new engagement between the United States and Burma, there are still many issues to tackle if relations between the two countries are to improve. In an East-West Center in Washington Asia Pacific Security Seminar co-hosted by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation USA, Dr. David I. Steinberg, distinguished professor of Asian Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, introduced his new book, Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know, and discussed the current state of U.S.-Burma relations and the prospects for the future.

In February 2009, the United States announced a review of its policy toward Burma, leading to new engagement between the two countries. In the spring, tentative steps were made to open up communication between the two governments, leading to a series of meetings at the official level. The U.S. policy review on Burma was extensive, leading some human rights commentators to worry that the United States might eliminate sanctions or soften its stance on human rights issues in order to achieve greater cooperation with Burma. However, the result of this review is a new period of “pragmatic engagement” in which the United States will continue its sanctions while at the same time maintaining dialogue with Burma at a high level.

Dr. Steinberg explained that it is difficult to say what Burma’s response to U.S. engagement will be. Nationalism, Dr. Steinberg noted, will play a key factor in Burmese decision-making as it engages with the United States. He explained that the fear that the United States will invade Burma is alive and well in the country, and this impedes the relationship. He also noted that Burma is an issue that is of great concern to groups in the United States, who will continue to call for U.S. action to protect human rights issues in Burma regardless of the state of the negotiations between the two countries.

Certainly the Burmese government is concerned about the upcoming scheduled elections, especially with U.S. and world attention being so closely fixed on the country. While the United States has expressed a desire that these elections be “free and fair,” Dr. Steinberg worried that Burmese and U.S. perceptions over what this means may be quite different. Though we cannot predict how the elections will be run or what the results of the elections will be, Dr. Steinberg argued that post-election Burma will still be controlled, in part, by the military due to the active role that the new constitution ensures for them. New political parties will develop that are peopled by former members of the military and, at the same time, Dr. Steinberg suggested that we can expect new opposition parties to develop. Whether the voices of these opposition parties will be heard in the domestic press, however, is difficult to determine. Further, he pointed out that the military leadership has already called for a hiatus in international NGO activities in the country during the campaigning and election period, indicating a concern that international groups will try to influence the elections in some way.

Another important issue facing the U.S.-Burma relationship is that of human rights issues, including the continued imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and the status of the minority groups in Burma that have long been in conflict with the military government. Dr. Steinberg noted that, in the past, the military government had insisted on the disarmament of all rebel groups among the minorities as a precondition of cease-fire agreements. However, he explained that in recent months discussions have begun for the creation of “border guard” forces which would allow rebel groups in the minority areas to keep their arms as long as they would incorporate Burmese military units into their organizations, an act which Dr. Steinberg argues would destroy the minority organizations. Whether the minority groups will agree to this offer is a serious issue that will have important consequences for the upcoming elections. He explained that countries like China and India, which are worried about instability along their borders, will continue to carefully monitor the situation as deadlines for reaching agreements with minority groups continue to be delayed.

Whatever the outcome of this new engagement, the process must be slow and deliberate. As the two countries move forward, Dr. Steinberg explained that there are several key things that the United States could do to keep the ball rolling. He suggested that it may be time to welcome a Burmese ambassador back to the United States as a gesture of good will. Further, he pointed to the importance of the role of NGOs in U.S. engagement with Burma, and noted that the U.S. government could do more to interact with this community. Burma, on the other hand, could indicate its commitment to the new engagement by releasing the many political prisoners held in its prisons and allowing freedom of the press. Dr. Steinberg explained that these two activities would signal that Burma is indeed working toward improved relations with the international community.

David I. Steinberg is distinguished professor of Asian Studies in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he was director of the Asian Studies Program for ten years. He is the author of thirteen books and monographs, six of which are on Burma/Myanmar, and some 100 articles/chapters, of which about 50 are on that subject. He also writes extensively on Korean affairs. As a member of the Senior Foreign Service, USAID, Department of State, he was Director of Technical Assistance for Asia and the Middle East and Director for Philippines, Thailand, and Burma Affairs. He was a representative of The Asia Foundation in Burma, Hong Kong, Korea, and Washington, D.C., and President of the Mansfield Center for Pacific Affairs. Professor Steinberg was educated at Dartmouth College, Lingnan University (China), Harvard University, and the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, where he studied Burmese and Southeast Asia. His latest volume is Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press. 2009). Other volumes include: Turmoil in Burma: Contested Legitimacies in Myanmar (2007), and Burma: The State of Myanmar (2001).

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Oct 10, 2009

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi Allowed to Meet With Western Envoys - washingtonpost.com

Address by Aung San Suu Kyi at the NGO Forum o...Image via Wikipedia

By Tim Johnston
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 10, 2009

BANGKOK, Oct. 9 -- Burma's military government granted detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi a rare meeting with Western diplomats Friday in the former capital, Rangoon.

Suu Kyi, who was sentenced to an additional 18 months of house arrest in August, met with diplomats from Australia, Britain and the United States in a government guesthouse, but strict conditions imposed by the ruling junta limited the conversation's scope.

Two representatives of Burma's Foreign Ministry also attended the hour-long meeting.

"It was a very interesting meeting, very focused on the subject at hand, which was sanctions. Daw Suu Kyi was very interested in all the details," said British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, using a term of respect for older women.

He said Suu Kyi, 64, appeared healthy and in good spirits.

"She was very clear that it was a fact-finding session, and she made absolutely explicit that she had not reached a policy on sanctions," he said. But Suu Kyi did ask, he said, under what conditions Western countries might lift sanctions, a topic that brought the fate of the 2,100 political prisoners held in Burmese jails into the conversation, along with free and fair elections next year and dialogue with Burma's ethnic minorities.

The United States has severe restrictions on doing business with Burma, while the European Union has targeted members of the regime, their families and their business associates.

The United States has recently undertaken a major review of its Burma policies and concluded that it will leave its sanctions in place but end the country's diplomatic isolation, a measure that critics fear might push the country further toward China.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in Burma's previous elections, in 1990. She has spent almost 14 of the intervening 19 years under house arrest, and analysts have said that her latest sentence, imposed after an American tourist swam across a lake to her house, is designed to keep her out of circulation until after the elections.

Despite her prolonged isolation, Suu Kyi remains the junta's most formidable opponent. But she has recently reached out to the generals, offering to discuss lending her moral authority to the drive to lift a catalogue of sanctions that are economically crippling and personally embarrassing for a military that still struggles for legitimacy 47 years after it toppled the last civilian government.

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Sep 30, 2009

Elder of Burmese Opposition Grapples With Election Dissonance - NYTimes.com

Myanmar Military RuleImage by TZA via Flickr

YANGON, Myanmar — U Win Tin, Myanmar’s longest-serving political prisoner, was tormented, tortured and beaten by his captors in the notorious Insein Prison for nearly two decades. Now, at 80, he faces a new kind of torment: watching colleagues from his political party decide whether to play by the rules of the junta that put him behind bars.

Released in September 2008 after more than 19 years in prison, Mr. Win Tin remains remarkably spry, upbeat, and politically engaged. A co-founder of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, he is a vocal opponent of taking part in national elections set for next year. The vote, along with the implementation of a new constitution, would introduce a shared civilian and military government after four and a half decades of military rule.

But while the constitution, passed in a disputed referendum held amid the widespread devastation of Cyclone Nargis in 2008, allows elected representation, it accords special powers to the military in what the junta calls “disciplined democracy.” Many critics call it a sham.

“The election can mean nothing as long as it activates the 2008 constitution, which is very undemocratic,” Mr. Win Tin said in a recent interview.

However, his party is split over whether to boycott the election. Some members say participating would mean losing moral claim to the party’s landslide victory in the 1990 general election, which was ignored by the junta. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent much of the period since under house arrest and was sentenced to a new term of 18 months in May, has not made her views on the issue public.

Still, the constitution offers some protections. In August, the International Crisis Group, the Brussels-based nongovernmental organization that seeks to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts, issued a report recommending that opposition groups participate in the election. It said that, although the new constitution “entrenches military power,” the changes at least establish “shared political spaces — the legislatures and perhaps the cabinet — where co-operation could be fostered.”

And internationally, some policies toward Myanmar are shifting.

Last week, the Obama administration announced that it would engage the junta directly, while keeping sanctions in place. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for the unconditional release of political prisoners, including Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, and “credible, democratic reform.”

“If the direct engagement of the U.S. will result in the release of all political prisoners and in a revision of the 2008 Constitution, then dialogue could begin between us and the junta, and we would consider running in the election,” Mr. Win Tin said.

Mr. Win Tin — warm, razor-sharp and clearly determined — said the junta might have released him, shortly before his jail sentence was complete, in order to split the party. He admitted that “we are having some arguments about whether we are going to participate in the elections or not,” but insisted that there was “no conflict within the party now.”

Before being jailed for three years in 1989 after he became secretary of the then newly formed National League for Democracy, Mr. Win Tin had worked as a journalist. In 1991, he was given 10 more years for his involvement in popular uprisings in 1988 that were crushed by the military. In 1996, he was given seven more years for sending the United Nations a petition about abuses in Myanmar prisons. Much of the time, he was in solitary confinement.

“I could not bow down to them,” he said. “No, I could not do it. I wrote poems to keep myself from going crazy. I did mathematics with chalk on the floor.”

He added: “From time to time, they ask you to sign a statement that you are not going to do politics and that you will abide by the law and so on and so forth. I refused.”

When all his upper teeth were bashed out, he was 61. The guards refused to let him get dentures for eight years, leaving him to gum his food.

Early this month, Mr. Win Tin was briefly detained after he wrote an op-ed that appeared in The Washington Post, criticizing the ruling military junta and its plans for the election next year.

“I think they are trying to intimidate me, to stop me from appearing in the foreign media,” he said.

During the interview, on his cousin’s leafy porch in suburban Yangon, government spies openly watched and took photographs from outside the gate.

Never married, Mr. Win Tin talks fondly of his adopted daughter, who lives in Sydney, Australia, after gaining political asylum 15 years ago. He has not seen her since.

Accustomed to a spare prison diet, he has one meal early in the day and a bit of fruit in the evening.

“I don’t want to be a burden on anyone,” he said.

Since his release, Mr. Win Tin has tried to reinvigorate the leadership of the National League for Democracy by stepping up the frequency of meetings and lobbying overseas governments. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi remains popular, despite the long years of detention, but the party has been crippled by the arrests of hundreds of the younger members, Mr. Win Tin said.

“We have some young men, but they are followed and sent to jail all the time,” he said. “Sometimes, they go to the pagoda just for praying. They are followed and charged with something and sentenced.” Many, he said, are tortured.

In one kind of torture, called “riding the motorcycle,” the subject is made to bend the knees, stand on tiptoe with sharp nails under the heels, and make the sound of a revving engine. When the subject can no longer maintain the tiptoe, the nails penetrate the foot.

All but one of Mr. Win Tin’s eight colleagues on the party’s central executive committee are older than him. The committee president and chairman, U Aung Shwe, is 92, and so infirm that he has not visited party headquarters for months. The party secretary, U Lwin, 87, is bedridden and paralyzed. The youngster in the group, is U Khin Maung Swe, 64.

Despite the challenges his party faces, Mr. Win Tin remains upbeat.

“We expect democracy can happen anytime,” he said, recalling the country’s postcolonial democracy period between 1948 and 1962. “But sometimes, you have to sacrifice everything for a long, long time. It might extend for more than your life span.”
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Sep 26, 2009

Jot ASEAN:- Burma: How many political prisoners released? Remain in prison?

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma "today confirmed that 127 political prisoners have been released from prisons in Burma." They include:
The AAPP press release continues:
According to AAPP, more than 2,000 political prisoners remain in jail, including at least 124 activists who are in poor health. Since November 2004 there have been a total of six amnesties for prisoners. According to the ruling State Peace and Development Council’s own figures, 45,732prisoners were released under those amnesties. According to AAPP, only 1.3% of them were political prisoners.

The latest amnesty was expected. In mid-July the Burmese permanent representative to the U.N., U Than Swe, said the regime was ‘processing to grant amnesty to prisoners on humanitarian grounds’.
The AAPP provides a breakdown of the political prisoners of the regime who continue to languish in the country's brutal jails where prisoners have reported torture and inhuman conditions. For a description of these conditions, see the interview I conducted at the Thai-Burma border with former political prisoner Zaw Nyein Latt (right). There is no evidence that the terrible conditions have improved. It is incumbent that ASEAN and the international community hold Burma's leadership personally to account for the well-being of its prisoners.
Summary of Current Situation

There are a total of 2,211 political prisoners in Burma.
These include:
CATEGORY
NUMBER
Monks
237
Members of Parliament
16
Students
286
Women
191
NLD members
479
Members of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
network
43
Ethnic nationalities
197
Cyclone Nargis volunteers
21
Teachers
26
Media Activists
51
Lawyers
12
In Poor Health
137
Since the protests in August 2007 leading to last September’s Saffron Revolution, a total of 1,122 activists have been arrested and are still in detention.
Update: A new report prompts us to ask why a Burmese-born American citizen is being held against his will in Burma.
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