Narinjara news


NO HOPE FOR THE RELEASE OF JAILED RAKHINE LEADERS IN MYANMAR

Sittwe, 29^th December 01:  The State Peace and Development Junta of Myanmar have so far released 202 jailed political opposition leaders.  On 27^th December they released four women members of the National League for Democracy led by Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.  Though many of the NLD leaders have been released so far,  most of the Rakhine nationality leaders including U Aye Tha Aung, the General Secretary of the Committee to Represent the People's Parliament (CRPP) and Joint Secretary of Arakan League for Democracy,  have been kept behind bars. In 1993 the junta banned Arakan League for Democracy. ALD won 11 out of 26 parliamentary seats in Rakhine State in the 1990 general elections, while CRPP is the body representing NLD and other Non-Burman Nationalities Organizations which won in the 1990 general elections whose results have never been honoured by the Myanmar military regimes.  
U Aye Tha Aung was arrested on 24^th April 2000, and was sentenced by SPDC for twenty years on 7^th June 2000 in Yangon.  Only U Saw Mra Aung ( Chairman of ALD, released a few months ago) and U Aye Tha Aung, who are both Rakhine nationals, were arrested and sentenced for their involvement in CRPP.  A prominent political leader of the opposition on condition of anonymity said that, the imprisonment of the two Rakhine leaders was the result of SPDC junta's jingoistic policy since no other leaders of the CRPP was ever arrested and sentenced.
U Aye Tha Aung  was given treatment at the Yangon General Hospital in October this year for his failing health.  An ALD leader said that, since then U Aye Tha Aung has been suffering from complicated heart disease and his condition has deteriorated over the months.  Though Amnesty International and some other human rights organizations have demanded for his release, the junta have not yet taken any steps for his release.#