"Throughout 2007 the situation for the citizens of Burma, including the thousands of political prisoners held in Burma?s numerous prisons, deteriorated. Burma?s military junta, the SPDC, continued a policy of arbitrarily detaining and harassing the political opposition, pro-democracy activists, members of ethnic minorities, and ordinary citizens. While politically motivated arrests were carried out all year, a spike in arrests was seen during and after the pro-democracy protests in August and September. The extensive arrest campaign carried out by the military regime after the protests resulted in the imprisonment of thousands of citizens, including numerous monks and nuns. By the first week of October it was widely estimated that up to 6,000 persons, including at least 1,400 monks, had been arrested since the beginning of the protests.[1] Not counting the arrests made during the protests, there was an overall increase of at least 704 political prisoners in the year 2007, pushing the total number to 1,864..."