Dissident Leader Tells Comrades Not to Sacrifice for His Freedom

By BA KAUNG Tuesday, November 22, 2011


“I don't think I will be released anytime soon. Tell my friends not to sacrifice for my freedom,” jailed political activist Min Ko Naing asked his family to communicate to his colleagues and supporters on Monday.

Min Ko Naing is a leader of the 88 Generation Students group and is considered one of Burma’s most important opposition political activists. He has been in prison for 20 of the last 23 years and is currently serving a 65-year prison sentence that began in 2007.

On Thursday, Min Ko Naing was transferred from a remote prison in Shan State, eastern Burma to Insein Prison in Rangoon. But after spending only one night in Insein, he was transferred to Thayet Prison, which is 350 km north of his hometown Rangoon.

Min Ko Naing’s sister Kyi Kyi Nyunt, who visited him in Thayet Prison on Monday, said the student leader was in good health despite a hectic journey from one prison to another.

She said that Min Ko Naing did not comment on the current political developments in Burma, including the decision by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to join the military-dominated parliamentary system, but asked her to tell his political colleagues not to risk imprisonment for the sake of his freedom.

The Burmese authorities transferred other prominent political prisoners last week as well. Buddhist monk Gambira was transferred from Kale Prison in northern Burma to Myaungmya Prison in the Irrawaddy Delta and female dissident Nilar Thein was transferred from Thayet Prison to Thayarwaddy Prison in Pegu Division.

The transfers came after the government-appointed Human Rights Commission called on President Thein Sein to grant amnesty to Burma’s remaining prisoners of conscience. The request was made public in an open letter published in Burma’s state-run newspapers on Nov. 12.

However, the letter also urged the president to transfer those prisoners who could not be released for “reasons of maintaining peace and stability” to prisons close to their families. As a result, there is now speculation that prisoners like Min Ko Naing who have now been transferred from remote prisons to prisons closer to their hometown will not be released anytime soon.

In addition, on the day Min Ko Naing was transferred to Thayet Prison, Burma’s President Thein Sein said he does not accept claims that political prisoners or prisoners of conscience exist in Burma.

“I cannot accept the notion of conscience itself. There are only those against whom we have taken actions because they had broken the existing laws,” he told a group of Burmese journalists while attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Bali.

In the case of Min Ko Naing, he was arrested the day after leading a peaceful march in protest of an increase in fuel prices in 2007. He was then charged with violating the countries draconian Electronics Act, which has often been used to detain political activists, and sentenced to 65 years in prison.

Thein Sein’s remark came right after Burma won its bid for the 2014 Asean chair and US President Barack Obama applauded Thein Sein for his reform efforts and announced he was sending US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Burma at the beginning of December.

The remark angered the family members of political prisoners, said Myat Thu, a political activist and a former political prisoner in Rangoon who was released from prison in May and is now organizing events to support the families of political prisoners.

“Now that Thein Sein got what he desired, he is showing his true colors,” Myat Thu said on Monday.

Asked about the landmark decision by Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy to contest elections and join the formal political arena, a decision that was based on her confidence in Thein Sein’s personal character and the reform initiatives he has initiated, Myat Thu was non-committal.

“Despite reforms, the evils continue such as continued detention of our colleagues and leaders. So we have to wait and see the developments for now,” he said.

In a government amnesty in October, around 220 political prisoners were released. At the time, the Human Rights Commission claimed this was a significant number because the country only had around 500 political prisoners in total.

But following the release, the NLD said it had compiled a list of more than 500 political prisoners who remained incarcerated.