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HRW: BURMA: POLITICAL PRISONER GRAV
- Subject: HRW: BURMA: POLITICAL PRISONER GRAV
- From: cd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 08 Oct 1997 23:40:00
guthrij@xxxxxxx wrote:
>
> Human Rights Watch/Asia
> 485 Fifth Avenue
> New York, NY 10017
> Telephone: 212 972 8400 ext.290
> Facsimile: 212 687-9786
> E-mail: joness@xxxxxxx
>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 7, 1997
>
> For further information:
> Zunetta Liddell, London (44) 171 713 1995; (h) 171-278-4485
> Sidney Jones, New York (212) 971 8400 ex.290; (h) 718-398-4186
>
>
> BURMA: POLITICAL PRISONER GRAVELY ILL
>
> Human Rights Watch/Asia expressed deep concern today about Burmese
> political prisoner U Win Tin, sixty-seven years old, who is reported
> to be seriously ill and perhaps close to death in Rangoon General
> Hospital. He was apparently transferred there within the past week
> from Myingyan jail, known to be one of the worst in Burma. Human Right
> Watch calls on the Burmese authorities to drop all charges against U
> Tin Win, to ensure that he has access to adequate medical care and the
> doctors of his choice, and to allow him to return to his home once he
> has recovered.
>
> U Win Tin, a journalist, was a founder of the National League for
> Democracy and was imprisoned in October 1989, accused of being a
> member of the banned Communist Party of Burma. He was sentenced to
> fourteen years by a military tribunal in Rangoon's notorious Insein
> jail and sometime in early 1996 was transferred to Myingyan, a town
> about 150 miles north of Rangoon. The transfer meant that relatives
> and supporters could no longer visit him or send him food and
> medicines.
>
> U Win Tin took a prominent part in a hunger strike in Insein jail
> in September 1990 and was reported to have been badly beaten. In 1993
> and 1994 he was one of four political prisoners to meet with
> Congressman Bill Richardson. In photographs taken during the
> meetings, U Win Tin was seen to be wearing a surgical collar. He told
> the congressman he suffered from spondylitis (degeneration of the
> spine).
>
> In mid-1995 U Win Tin was one of a group of eight prisoners
> accused of sending letters to the United Nations detailing conditions
> within Insein prison. He was reportedly beaten and kept solitary
> confinement in the prison's "dog cells" (formerly the kennels for the
> prison guard dogs). It was later learned that he was sentenced to an
> additional five years under prison regulations banning the possession
> of writing materials. The transcript of this trial, which again took
> place in Insein jail, was translated and published in full by the
> exiled All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF) in 1997.
>
> **********
>
> Human Rights Watch: Mission Statement
> Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of
> people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to bring
> offenders to justice, to prevent discrimination, to uphold political
> freedom and to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime.
> We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers
> accountable. We challenge governments and those holding power to end
> abusive practices and respect international human rights law.
> We enlist the public and the international community to support the
> cause of human rights for all.
>
> Kenneth Roth is the executive director and Robert L. Bernstein is the
> chair of the board.
>
>
>