"...Throughout 2008, acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, continued to be regularly reported across Burma. Reported acts of torture were not confined merely to those in prisons or detention centres but were reportedly perpetrated against regular citizens; men, women and children who live in a country oppressed by a powerful few. The year saw the continuation of human rights abuses against those involved in the Saffron Revolution of September 2007, with trials held in prisons and closed courtrooms. Many activists and members of the opposition were sentenced to long periods of time in prison and relocations of political prisoners to remote prison locations were common throughout the year as the regime made it even more difficult for relatives to visit those imprisoned. Over the course of 2008 the prison population also increased due to the spike in arrests from the end of 2007. With conditions in prisons deteriorating, the human rights situation for those in detention continued to worsen. Conflict and discrimination against ethnic minorities also continued, with reports of torture used against minority groups including the Karen, the Chin, the Shan and the ethnic Rohingya..."