Arrest and Imprisonment

The military government consistently denies that Burma has no political prisoners. However, many people are arrested in Burma because of their participation in politics, and international organizations point out that there are many political prisoners in Burma.1
Amnesty International (AI), having visited Burma in April 2004 for the second time, reports that Burma has some 1350 political prisoners.
United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteur to Burma, Paolo Pinheiro, stated that Burma has more than 1300 political prisoners. In April 2004, he again demanded their freedom. There are several women among those prisoners.2
The junta arrests women for many different political reasons. As in 1988, women have been arrested for participation in nonviolent demonstrations. They have also been arrested for campaigning that is perceived as a threat to national security.
In 1995, three women were arrested and received five year imprisonment because they wore yellow t-shirts on which Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s photo was printed.
In 1998, military intelligence personnel arrested Thaw Dar, a young woman running a photocopy shop in Rangoon. Later, she was accused of copying student union publications and was sentenced to 42 year imprisonment.
Some women have been arrested because their politically active husbands were away from home.3
In July 1999, the military authorities chased after U Kyaw Wunna, a pro-democracy activist in Pegu, but could not find him. Instead, they arrested his wife Daw Khin Khin Leh and his three-year-old daughter, Ma Thaint Wanna Khin. His daughter was released five days later, but Daw Khin Khin Leh was sentenced to life in prison.4
In June 2000, local military intelligence personnel arrested an 18 year old Tavoyan woman, Daw Yuu Yuu Hlaing, in Kawthaung Township, Tennasserim Division. They declared that she would be released if her husband in exile, who had been imprisoned twice for collecting information about human rights violations, came back to Burma and surrendered. Her husband did not surrender, so authorities then sentenced Daw Yuu Yuu Hlaing to 2 year imprisonment. She was four months pregnant at the time of her arrest. (See Appendix-19)