Burmese Junta Continues Crackdown

Forty-one people, including journalists, artists and relief workers, have been arrested by the Burmese authorities in Rangoon in October and are being held in unknown locations, according to the rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners—Burma (AAPP).

Bo Kyi, the joint-secretary of the Thailand-based group, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday, “We got confirmation that 41 people were arrested on October, but we don’t know all of them or where they have been taken. We don’t even know the reason they were arrested. We also have information that there are more people in hiding.”

The detainees include Khant Min Htet, a writer; Paing Soe Oo, a freelance journalist; Thant Zin Soe, and Nyi Nyi Tun, editors; Min Satta, a songwriter; and Nyi Paing, a singer, according to the AAPP.

The families of the detained are trying to locate their loved ones.

The mother of a detainee, Khant Min Htet, said, “They took my son two weeks ago, and I don’t have any information about where he is. I’m really worried because he was sick a lot when he was at home.”

She said when the authorities took her son from her house, they told her he would be questioned, and then released.

Bo Kyi said, “They [Burmese authorities] don’t treat people accordingly to the rule of law when they are arrested. They don’t inform the detainees’ families. They take them to some interrogation camp where they beat and torture them in order to get the confession they want.”

According to AAPP, 2,119 political prisoners are being held in prisons across the country.

Meanwhile, Ni Mo Hlaing, a member of the National League for Democracy, has been hospitalized in Thayet Prison, according to her family.

Ni Mo Hlaing’s sister told The Irrawaddy that Ni Mo Hlaing is very ill, and she is not eating properly.

Her sister said they cried together when she visited her last month. “Her face is very pale. She is skinny and has lost weight,” she said.

Ni Mo Hlaing was arrested in 2008 following the demonstrations and was sentenced to 7 and one-half years in prison.

According to the AAPP, 138 political prisoners have died in Burmese prisons since 1988 and at least 115 are currently in poor health.