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NLD's prisoner assistance gains momentum
Irrawaddy - February 21, 2011
Htet Aung – Burma's main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), is stepping up its efforts to assist political prisoners, calling on Burmese living abroad to sponsor detainees serving long sentences for their political beliefs in the country's notorious prisons.
This new initiative was started on Jan. 4, Burma's Independence Day, when the party's leaders set up a lottery scheme to assign sponsors to individual political prisoners and provide financial and other forms of assistance to prisoners and their families.
The NLD program has so far provided humanitarian assistance to more than 600 political prisoners. Party leaders Aung San Suu Kyi, Tin Oo and Win Tin are among those taking part in the program.
"The NLD has long had a political prisoner assistance program, and some Burmese living abroad who were aware of it made donations," said Win Tin, an NLD executive member who spent 19 years in Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison. "Under the new program, we are actively seeking new sponsors."
"We sent a list of the prisoners to the Burmese community living in the United States and Singapore to find sponsors, because we knew that some Burmese there are willing to join this program."
This is the first time that the NLD has looked outside of the country to seek the support of the Burmese diaspora. The goal is not just to increase the level of financial assistance, but also to establish solidarity between overseas supporters of the democratic movement and prisoners who are suffering enormous hardships because of their commitment to the cause.
Asked how many of the prisoners this sponsorship program is now reaching, Saw Naing Naing, the person in charge of the NLD's political prisoner assistance program, said: "We have individual sponsors for nearly 600 political prisoners, but more assistance is needed for other prisoners.
"For those willing to sponsor a political prisoner, we will provide the contact details of the prisoner's family so they can be contacted directly," he said. "If there are some difficulties contacting the family, we can help to make sure that this assistance reaches the prisoners and their families." There are millions of Burmese living outside the country, including more than two million in Thailand alone.
Asked about the NLD's sponsorship program for political prisoners, Bo Kyi, the secretary of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), said: "This is a very good program that is really needed to provide material and moral support to both the prisoners and their families. We hope that as many people as possible will join it."
However, he expressed concern that prisoners' families might be reluctant to accept donations coming from outside of the country because of the threat of harassment by the authorities. He also suggested that there should be a system in place to provide long-term assistance to prisoners who are suffering badly behind bars.
According to Win Tin, the NLD provides around 5,000 kyat (US $5.60) per month to each political prisoner, but much more is needed, especially for prisoners serving their sentences in remote prisons located far from their families.
"That includes medicine and some travel expenses for the families," he said, adding that the NLD is currently spending around 4,000,000 kyat (US $4,470) per month to support political prisoners and provide some education assistance to their children.
Win Tin said that donations to the NLD's political assistance program have increased since Suu Kyi's release from house arrest last November.
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