| Home > South-East Asia >> Burma | |
Prisoners go on hunger strike following amnesty
Irrawaddy - May 23, 2011
Ba Kaung – Less than a week after Burma's new government announced an amnesty for thousands of prisoners, political prisoners in Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison have gone on a hunger strike to demand better conditions, according to prison sources.
After the amnesty last week, which saw the release of only a handful of political prisoners, around 20 political prisoners in Insein Prison launched a hunger strike over the weekend, demanding reading materials, adequate food rations and better health care, the sources said.
There were concerns of a crackdown by the prison authorities against the striking prisoners, but sources said that so far there has been no official response to the prisoners' demands.
Prisoners in Burma receive only the lowest-quality food.
Families of prisoners said the strikers include women political prisoners. They added that the main reason for the strike is to express resentment of the amnesty, which left more than 2,000 political prisoners in custody.
The political prisoners, many of whom are servings lengthy jail sentences, include prominent activists such as Min Ko Naing, comedian Zarganar and Gambira, one of the Buddhist monks who led mass anti-government protests in September 2007.
In an interview with The Irrawaddy on Monday, Gambira's sister Thuzar Htay said that her brother, who is serving a 65-year jail term in Kalay Prison in Chin State, was also demanding the release of all political prisoners and improved prison conditions.
"My brother and his fellow political prisoners wish to report their demands to the Minister of Home Affairs and President Thein Sein," she said.
According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) in Burma, the strikes in Insein Prison have continued until today. The group said that the treatment of political prisoners in Burma is not even on a par with that of foreign nationals jailed in the country on criminal charges.
Foreign nationals are allowed to speak freely during family visits, whereas "family members that visit political prisoners must remain behind a glass and iron-barred security screen, with CCTV and prison guards noting all conversations," said an AAPP statement released on Saturday.
Only 47 political prisoners were released under the amnesty by the new civilian government, according to the National League for Democracy (NLD), Burma's banned opposition party. The amnesty has been denounced by rights groups as a mockery of the international community's demands for the release of political prisoners in Burma.
On Friday, Vijay Nambiar, the UN envoy for Burma, also described the move as insufficient in a briefing to the UN Security Council about his recent visit to the country.
"We continue to urge the Myanmar (Burmese) authorities to do more in order to be consistent both with their recent stated commitments and to meet the expectations of both its own people and the international community," Nambiar said in a statement.
See also:
 |