The Asian Age: June 4, 1999 -- ICRC

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Red Cross visit to Burma jails failed: Suu Kyi

The Asian Age, New Delhi
Jun. 4, 1999

                    Bangkok: Burma Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has
claimed the military
                    government transferred hundreds of political prisoners
from a Rangoon jail before a
                    pioneering Red Cross inspection last month.
                    Aung San Suu Kyi said in an interview in Thursday?s
Financial Times that
                    ?hundreds? of prisoners were moved from the notorious
Insein Jail before
                    international committee of the Red Cross delegates were
allowed to make their first
                    visit to a Burmese prison on May 6. Many were banished
to jails in the provinces
                    far from their families and others remained unaccounted
for, she said. ?This created
                    tremendous hardship,? Aung San Suu Kyi was quoted as
saying, adding that many
                    prisoners depended on family visits for food and
medicines.
                    ?This kind of transfer is a matter of life and death
for our party members,? she
                    added. The ICRC said in a statement from Geneva last
month it had been allowed
                    access to Burmese jails for the first time after
lengthy negotiations.
                    It said it had also been authorised to visit all
detention centres in the country, after
                    it opened an office in the capital last October. Aung
San Suu Kyi was quoted as
                    saying that the ICRC should have consulted with the
party before starting the
                    prison visits.
                    ?If the ICRC had consulted us earlier we could have
pointed out the fact that the
                    government had started to transfer our prisoners and
they should demand that this
                    stop as a condition for inspecting these prisons,? she
said.
                    Aung San Suu Kyi?s National League for Democracy Party
won an overwhelming
                    victory in Burma?s 1990 elections but the junta has
refused to relinquish power and
                    has imprisoned hundreds of party members. The newspaper
quoted a
                    Geneva-based official of the ICRC as saying that

delegates did not consult Aung
                    San Suu Kyi because it was trying to build confidence
with the government.
                    ?To reach our objectives, including pointing out to
authorities that family visits are
                    important both materially and psychologically, we need
to work inside the prisons,?
                    the official said. ?This is a process that cannot
produce results in a few weeks but
                    over the medium and long term.? 
                    Many prisoners who have served time in Insein Jail have
emerged with grisly tales
                    of appalling conditions and claimed they were tortured
or held in solitary
                    confinement. On Wednesday the junta said Hla Khin, 43,
an NLD member who was
                    jailed under the country?s 1975 anti-subversion laws,
committed suicide in Insein.
                    His death and the circumstances surrounding it could
not be independently
                    confirmed.



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