March 23, 2003

On May 6, 2002, the Burmese military government claimed that a new page had been opened in the political history of the country and that people could freely engage in politics. At the same time, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was released from under house arrest.

Therefore, the people of Burma supposed that political changes would follow.
However, ten months after the release of the statement, appalling human rights abuses continue such as: deaths in custody, imprisonment even after one's sentence is completed, conditional releases, disappearances from prisons and arrests of activists. Because of these ongoing abuses, it's clear that the junta's claim of "turning a new page" was only a pretence designed to win international support.

According to our knowledge, at least 75 activists were arrested during the last ten months.

There has been no visible progress in health care for political prisoners. The junta never comments about the issue of prisoners' deplorable health conditions and deaths in custody preferring to try to cover up this information. According to our knowledge, at least 82 political prisoners have died in prisons under the junta' rule.

Aung May Thu, 61, a member of National League for Democracy died in Tharawaddy on September 17, 2002. Sithu, 31, a student leader, also died at the same prison in 2002. At that time, their prisons sentences were already completed. However, they were still imprisoned at the time of their deaths.

In Burma, 26 political prisoners are still in notorious prisons although their prison sentences are completed. UN special rapporteur on human rights, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, has asked many times for their unconditional release, as he is concerned for their mental and physical health condition. So far the junta still keeps them imprisoned. We strongly want to point out that those prisoners were put in prisons soon after the junta seized the power. They have been in prison for 14 years and have faced many terrible ordeals including torture.

The UN special rapporteur also pointed out in 2002 that Burma has 1448 political prisoners. During the last ten months, 355 political prisoners were released according to the junta's claims. Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmese democracy leader, continuously points out that the rate of release is too slow. There were no releases between November 21 and March 16, 2003. The junta claimed that 115 were released on November 21. However, we could confirm that only 61 prisoners were released.

Both the International community, including the United Nations and Burmese organizations, including the National League for Democracy have continuously asked the junta to free unconditionally all political prisoners.

Activists released during the last ten months have been only conditionally released.
They have had to sign an undertaking to observe Section 401 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This means that they had to agree that they would not take part in any political activities before they would be released.

In the last Nine months of 2002, 15 political prisoners disappeared from various prisons in Tenasserim Division, where they were being detained. At least seven, and possibly all 15 are feared to have been killed after being removed from prison by military authorities.

The people are getting poorer and the country is facing a general decline 15 years after the junta seized the power. We are disappointed, as the junta is obviously not interested in political changes despite appearances ten months ago. It's clear that the junta's policy on political prisoners hasn't changed at all.

Torture and deaths in prisons, atrocious health conditions and long indefinite terms of imprisonment are systematic and routine occurrences under the junta. It is not advantageous for anyone in Burma for these horrible crimes to continue. For the good of our country we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)