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Continuous Human Rights Abuses in B



Subject: Continuous Human Rights Abuses in Burma

Friday January 22 11:23 AM ET 

Hundreds Reported Jailed in Myanmar



BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - At least 270 people were sentenced to long 
prison terms in Myanmar this month for demanding that a parliament 
elected in 1990 finally be convened, a dissident group reported Friday.

Myanmar's government started detaining about 1,000 supporters of the 
National League for Democracy in September, but there had previously 
been little word of prison sentences. Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San 
Suu Kyi is the leader of the NLD.

Suu Kyi's party won parliamentary elections allowed by the military in 
1990. But the ruling council of generals never allowed the parliament to 
meet.

The All-Burma Federation of Student Unions, a Bangkok-based exile group, 
said those sentenced included more than 200 students given 14 years 
each. Exceptionally long sentences of 52, 38, 23 and 21 years were 
handed down to four activists. Most of the rest received seven years.

Political and security trials in Myanmar are secret and word of 
sentencing filters out only slowly.

There was no immediate government comment on the report.

Suu Kyi stepped up her campaign against the military regime last year by 
launching new calls to convene the parliament.

The government responded with a crackdown against her party that led to 
mass detentions and the closing of some 40 party offices.

The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962. Suu Kyi 
is permitted almost no political activities.