MAE SOT, Thailand -- Despite recent political prisoner releases in Myanmar, the number of political prisoners in that country is remaining more or less the same, according to sources here, with political arrests continuing.
Although there have been some prisoners released in recent months -- including a batch last week prior to the latest visit by U.N. envoy Razali Ismail which began Friday -- more arrests are being made, according to officials of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) interviewed here. The arrests do not, however, include members of the National League for Democracy, opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, they said.
According to a list produced by the group, there were 1,573 political prisoners at the beginning of June. Recent arrests, they said, include that of Salai Tun Than, a former professor of agriculture in his 70s arrested at the end of last year and sentenced to seven years in prison.
In one 2001 case recounted by AAPP Joint Secretary Bo Kyi, eight activists were arrested in Bangkok by Thai police on illegal immigration charges. They were taken here to Mae Sot, close to the Myanmar border, and repatriated to Myanmar. Military intelligence was waiting for them there and they were sent to Yangon. Five were sentenced to death for treason, and the other three were sentenced to 10 years. There have been no executions since 1988, but the eight are now in various prisons around Myanmar, Bo Kyi said.
Former political prisoners who are considered dangerous are often watched very closely, the AAPP leaders said, and prisoners who are considered dangerous continue to be held past the end of their sentences.
Political Pawns
Bo Kyi called the NLD prisoner release issue a "political pawn," played by a government that is trying to garner international aid.
A diplomatic source interviewed for this series was also skeptical of the releases, asking why the ruling State Peace and Development Council is so stubborn about their release.
A minority might be dangerous, he said, but for the rest, holding the prisoners gives the government something to talk about with outside powers without having to discuss democratization, the main issue for the outside world.
The AAPP officials interviewed are former political prisoners themselves and their stories are telling.
Bo Kyi was arrested in 1989, escaped, and was rearrested 1990 for demonstrating and sentenced to three years of hard labor. He said he was in solitary confinement for most of that time. After his release, he said, he refused to become an informer. Because of that and because, he said, authorities feared he might organize while working as a teacher, he was arrested again in 1994 and sentenced to five years, although he was released in October 1998. He was also detained for questioning in 1999 before fleeing to Thailand that year.
AAPP Secretary Ko Tate Naing spent 20 months in Yangon's Insein Prison after being arrested for charges including illegal publishing on human rights and democracy in February 1990. He was then transferred to Thayet Prison, 250 miles from Yangon, before being released in August 1992.
Zaw Htun of the AAPP's executive committee said he was sentenced to six years for distributing pamphlets in 1991 and was held in Insein and Thayet until 1995. He said he escaped arrest again in 1997 before fleeing to Thailand.
According to Bo Kyi, at least 20 of Myanmar's 38 prisons have political prisoners, some of which are remote and difficult for international monitors to visit. There are also 50 labor camps with 100,000 prisoners, he said, but because of international pressure, there are no political prisoners there.