SCMP Burma Military secretly cremat

[byva@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

South China Morning Post

Saturday  August 15  1998

             Burma 
               Military secretly
                cremates jailed
                         MP 

             WILLIAM BARNES 
             An MP from opposition leader Aung San
             Suu Kyi's party has been secretly
             cremated after dying in one of Burma's
             notorious jails.

             U Saw Win, 61, was the third National
             League for Democracy MP to die in
             prison after being elected in the 1990
             general election, said the All Burma
             Students Democratic Front yesterday.

             The group urged the Government to
             allow the International Committee of the
             Red Cross access to all political
             prisoners in Burma.

             The Red Cross closed its office in
             Rangoon in 1995 after it was not allowed
             to make jail visits.

             Several of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's
             supporters have died in prison.

             "We are deeply shocked at the news of U
             Saw Win's untimely death, and we
             demand to know the circumstances," said
             the student front's foreign affairs
             spokesman, Aung Naing Oo.

             The league has demanded Parliament be
             convened by next Saturday along the
             lines of the 1990 election in which it won
             four-fifths of the seats. But the military -
             which ignored the election result - has
             tried to reduce the party's legitimacy by
             whittling down its MPs.

             The league claims that of its 392 MPs in
             the 484-seat Parliament, 112 have been
             dismissed by the official election
             commission or coerced into resigning.

             Seventeen MPs have died. A further 11
             are in exile and 83 are under some kind of
             detention to stop them travelling to see
             Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.

             U Saw Win was sentenced to 11 years in
             prison a year after the election for
             allegedly failing to transport logs quickly
             enough during the construction of the
             Rangoon-Thanlyin Bridge.

             His body was cremated in Thayawaddy
             Prison, 160km north of Rangoon, without
             the permission or presence of his family
             two days after his death on August 9,
             according to the student front.


____________________________________________________________________
More than just email--Get your FREE Netscape WebMail account today at http://home.netscape.com/netcenter/mail