April 30, 2003

Three political prisoners were released from Mandalay prison yesterday after 14 years after behind bars. Although three of them have been reunited with their families, they are now suffering mental sickness.
Dr. Zaw Min, a medical doctor, Htay Thein, a university lecturer, and Tin Myint, an engineer were arrested in July 1989. They were accused of being communist sympathizers and trying to occupy the State Power. The Martial Court sentenced them to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor on November 13, 1989.
At the beginning of 1993 the regime gave Amnesty to prisoners by reducing all sentences over ten years given before 1992 to ten years. According to this amnesty, their prison terms were reduced to ten years across the board.
Besides, in accordance with the "Chapter 11, article 59[5] of the Burma Prison Manual: "A prisoner who has acted in accordance with prison regulations has the right to parole for at least 60, 70 or 90 days a year."
Therefore, according to the above mentioned, they had to be released in 1997 or 1998.
Although three of them were released, 25 political prisoners are still in notorious prisons despite the fact that their prison sentences are completed. Many are worried about their mental and physical health conditions as they have been living in terrible conditions for many years.
"We wish to point out that those prisoners were put in prison soon after the junta seized the power. They have been in prison for 14 years and have faced many terrible ordeals including torture," said Tate Naing, secretary of Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) concerning those prisoners.
The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, has requested their unconditional release on several occasions, as he is concerned for their mental and physical health.
According to our research, there are currently almost 1380 political prisoners in Burma.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)