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HEADLINES
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AFP - Suu Kyi 'malnourished' after refusing food supplies: lawyer
AFP - Aung San Suu Kyi meets doctor amid health worries
AFP - Suu Kyi to appeal to Myanmar junta for her release: lawyer
AP - Amnesty says Myanmar detainee at risk of torture
AP - Newspaper: 2 bomb blasts in central Myanmar kill 2
Reuters - Myanmar blames "insurgents" for deadly bomb blasts
Bangkok Post - Surin seeks more UN relief aid for Burma
Mizzima News - Editorial: Burma seat should be questioned
Mizzima News - Aung San Suu Kyi agrees to accept fresh food supplies
The Irrawaddy - Cyclone Refugees Forced to Leave Camps
The Irrawaddy - Election in 18 Months: USDA Source
The Irrawaddy - Through a Baby’s Eyes
DVB News - Authorities arrest relatives of activists

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Suu Kyi 'malnourished' after refusing food supplies: lawyer
From AFP on 2008-09-15 03:26:52 (posted on 2008-09-15 03:26:52)

YANGON, Sept 15, 2008 (AFP) - Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is malnourished after refusing most food supplies for four weeks, her lawyer said Monday after meeting her doctor.

"Although Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was not on a hunger strike, she was eating little because she hasn't accepted food supplies since August 16," her lawyer Kyi Win said, using an honorific before her name.

"Recently she has become malnourished. After she met with her doctor yesterday, she is eating more nutritiously, " he said.

Her doctor Tin Myo Win spent four-and-a-half hours Sunday at Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside home, where she has been confined for most of the last 19 years, but he refused to give details on her health.

Kyi Win said the 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner was not staging a hunger strike but had stopped accepting her daily rations from the military regime to demand greater rights for Myanmar's people.

She has been surviving the last month mainly on small stocks of food that she had in her home, Kyi Win added.

"The reason for not accepting food like this was not only for her but to demand the prevalence of law and order in the country and to win the rights that all people should be granted," he said.

Nyan Win, spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said she had agreed to start accepting food supplies from Monday but he could not say if the rations had already been delivered.

"She will accept her food supplies from today," Nyan Win said.

Neither the lawyer nor the spokesman could confirm if she had been granted any concessions from the regime, such as permission to receive mail or for her two maids to move freely in and out of the house.

Kyi Win said Friday he had held "positive" talks with the government on relaxing the terms of her confinement so that she could receive mail and monthly visits from her doctor.

He has also been allowed to meet her to discuss a legal appeal of her detention.

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Aung San Suu Kyi meets doctor amid health worries
Sun Sep 14, 11:19 AM ET

YANGON(AFP) - Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi met for several hours with her physician Sunday amid worries for her health after her party said she was not accepting food.

But Tin Myo Win, who spent four and a half hours at the lakeside home where the Nobel peace laureate has been confined for most of the last 19 years, refused to give details on her health after his visit.

"I can't say anything right now," he told reporters in front of his Yangon home, adding Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer would speak to reporters about her condition in the near future.

The detained leader's last medical check-up by the doctor was in mid-August, before her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said September 5 that she had refused most of her food rations for the last three weeks.

Concerns over Aung San Suu Kyi have grown after she refused to meet with visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari and the junta's liaison officer.

The regime says she is not staging a hunger strike, and the NLD has stopped short of using the term.

But the party has said that she is refusing food supplies "to denounce her continuing detention, which is unfair under the law."

The 63-year-old has no other source of food aside from the daily supplies provided by the military regime.

Her party won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but the junta never allowed it to take office. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962.

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Suu Kyi to appeal to Myanmar junta for her release: lawyer
Sat Sep 13, 11:06 AM ET

YANGON (AFP) - Detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will soon submit her first-ever personal appeal for release to Myanmar's ruling junta, her lawyer told AFP Saturday.

Kyi Win said the Nobel Prize laureate had approved the final draft of a legal appeal to the country's ruling junta for her release during a meeting Saturday afternoon at the lakeside Yangon house where she has been confined for most of the last 19 years.

"This is in fact one of the first appeals of this kind as far as I know," the lawyer said.

"From my point of view we are hoping for her immediate release," he said, adding the appeal would be submitted Monday or Tuesday.

The lawyer refused to comment on Suu Kyi's health, after reports she was not accepting food.

The meeting was their fifth since August 8 and aside from a medical check-up by her personal physician last month, Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to meet with anyone else -- including visiting UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari last month and the junta's liaison officer last week.

Her doctor Tin Myo Win is scheduled to pay her a visit at her request Sunday, he said.

Concerns about Aung San Suu Kyi's health have mounted since her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said on September 5 that she had refused most of her food rations for the last three weeks.

The regime denies that she is staging a hunger strike, and the NLD has not used the term.

But the party has said that her refusal of food supplies was "to denounce her continuing detention, which is unfair under the law."

The 63-year-old has no other source of food aside from the daily supplies provided by the military regime.

Her party won a landslide victory in a 1990 election but the junta never allowed it to take office. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962.

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Amnesty says Myanmar detainee at risk of torture
From AP on 2008-09-13 22:54:00 (posted on 2008-09-13 22:53:32)

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - A prominent anti-government activist recently arrested in Myanmar is at risk of torture, the human rights group Amnesty International said.

Nilar Thein, 36, had been on the run for more than a year after the military government cracked down on activists from the 88 Generation Students group, the London-based group said Saturday. She was arrested Wednesday in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, as she was going to visit the mother of a detained comrade.

``She is under interrogation in Aung Tha Pyay Detention Center in Yangon ... and is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, '' said a statement e-mailed by Amnesty.

The junta rarely comments on accusations by international rights groups and had issued no public reaction as of Sunday.

Some members of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested soon after organizing anti-government demonstrations in August last year to protest economic hardships and demand democratic reform. Nevertheless, the demonstrations continued and grew as monks and ordinary civilians joined to call for democratic and economic change.

The army violently suppressed the protests in late September 2007. The U.N. estimated at least 31 people were killed.

Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and many fled the country or went underground. Nilar Thein's husband, Kyaw Min Yu _ also known as Ko Jimmy _ was one of 13 members of the 88 Generation group arrested on Aug. 22 last year.

Amnesty said Nilar Thein led a demonstration of about 500 people the day after his arrest, then went into hiding, leaving their baby daughter behind in the care of her in-laws.

According to Amnesty, Nilar Thein was imprisoned twice before for her pro-democracy activities. In December 1996 she was arrested for participating in student demonstrations and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment. She was released in 2005.

Authorities have tightened security since the last week of August to pre-empt any demonstrations marking the first anniversary of last year's protests.

The junta have arrested nearly 300 people for peaceful political activities in 2008, Amnesty International said.

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Newspaper: 2 bomb blasts in central Myanmar kill 2
Sun Sep 14, 12:24 AM ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Two bombs exploded at a nightspot in a rural town in central Myanmar, killing two people, a state newspaper reported Saturday.

The blasts occurred 10 minutes apart Thursday night at a lounge in Kyauk-kyi township, the state-run New Light of Myanmar said.

One man and one woman were killed and nine people were wounded, it said. The bombs went off while authorities inspected another explosive device that was discovered before it detonated, the newspaper said.

The report did not speculate on who might have carried out the bombings or why, but described the perpetrators as "terrorists. "

The military government announced Monday that it had arrested several people accused of organizing bombings and demonstrations in Myanmar's cities, including the new capital of Naypyitaw. Among those arrested were prominent human rights activists and people the junta said were plotting to topple the government.

On Saturday, Amnesty International expressed concern for prominent anti-government activist Nilar Thein, who was arrested Wednesday in Yangon after more than a year on the run.

"She is under interrogation in Aung Tha Pyay Detention Center in Yangon ... and is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, " said a statement e-mailed by Amnesty, a London-based human rights group.

Myanmar officials authorized to comment on security matters could not immediately be reached for comment during the weekend. But in presentations to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Myanmar diplomats have repeatedly denied that there are any political prisoners in the country, and say that laws barring the use of torture are observed.

Thein is a member of the 88 Generation Students, a group that organized anti-government demonstrations over economic issues in August last year. The protesters were arrested, but the demonstrations grew in size and number and were violently put down by the army in late September 2007. The U.N. estimated at least 31 people were killed.
The government's arrests last week were seen as a tightening of security by the junta ahead of the anniversary of last September's protests.

The military, which has ruled Myanmar, also called Burma, since 1962, has been widely criticized for suppressing basic freedoms.

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Myanmar blames "insurgents" for deadly bomb blasts
Sat Sep 13, 3:13 AM ET

YANGON (Reuters) - Army-ruled Myanmar's state media blamed unnamed "insurgents" on Saturday for bomb attacks that killed two people and wounded 10 last week.

A man and woman were killed on Thursday when a bomb exploded in a video store in Kyaukkyi Township of Bago Division, about 120 miles north of the former capital, Yangon, the Kyemon newspaper said.

Nine others were wounded in the blast.

Separately, a villager in the same township was wounded by a bomb that exploded in a bamboo grove, the newspaper said.

It said officials had accused "insurgents" of orchestrating the attacks, but gave no further details.

Last week state media accused a group led by prominent rights activist Myint Aye of masterminding similar previous attacks.

The military, which has ruled the former Burma since 1962, often points the finger of blame at anti-government dissident groups, comprising ethnic armed groups fighting for greater autonomy and exiled pro-democracy groups.

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Surin seeks more UN relief aid for Burma
CYCLONE NARGIS
Bangkok Post - Monday September 15, 2008
ANUCHA CHAROENPO

KUNGYANGON, BURMA : Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) need to convince the United Nations, which will hold its annual meeting this month, to provide more humanitarian aid for the two million victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burma, Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday.

Mr Surin, who chairs the grouping's Humanitarian Task Force, is coordinating with Asean, the UN and the Burmese government. He said he will ask Asean leaders at the UN meeting in New York to raise the issue in the General Assembly, as the cyclone victims are struggling to survive.

''We have to help them survive,'' Mr Surin said at Seik Gyi village in Burma.

He said financial aid of US$1 billion (34.5 billion baht) earlier promised by the UN and international humanitarian organisations over the next three years would most likely not be enough because of the magnitude of the destruction in the Irrawaddy delta, including the village he recently visited.

Seik Gyi in the Irrawaddy delta is a three-hour drive from Rangoon. The disaster there claimed 67 lives, leaving 17 children orphaned. It also destroyed fishing boats and nets, houses, a primary school, a temple and the betel plantations in the 1,300 villagers there.

The Thai community and embassy in Burma have pledged financial support of $5,000 and other necessities to help the cyclone victims at Seik Gyi.

''We want to help bring back their lives,'' Thai ambassador to Burma Bansarn Bunnag said.

Four months ago Asean, the UN and the Burmese government chose the village as a model to carry out community-based projects, which will end next July.

The three parties involved in the project will spend $170,000 getting the lives of the villagers back to normal. They will get new fishing boats and nets, the 30 community wells will be cleaned and they will be given saplings of the betel leaf plant.

''Three months ago we didn't see anyone smiling or anyone with hope in their eyes. Now you can see their excitement, confidence and hope for their future. I think it's a big difference,' ' Mr Surin said.

A similar project will be set up in two more villages deeper in the delta in the next two months.

Win Myint, 40, a Seik Gyi villager, said her life is now better and thanked the international community for helping her and the other villagers get back to normal.

''I had never seen this kind of storm before. It was horrible,'' she recalled.

The school in the village has recently reopened after renovations.

''All the children at the school here are happy when they see international volunteers come to help rebuild their school and village,'' said Zin Thu Soe, a teacher.

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Burma seat should be questioned
Mizzima News - Editorial: Monday, 15 September 2008 19:17

When the United Nations considers the petition to strip Burma's junta of their seat in the international body's General Assembly, the United Nations should act on the appeal as an opportunity to jumpstart a flailing mediation process.

While commitment to a process is important, as oft repeated by United Nations representatives, such a commitment needs to be confirmed following the adoption of a correct process. Leaving the seat of Burma vacant at the General Assembly is a step along the correct process, a process that is intended to address both the political stalemate as well as the livelihood of the general population.

The current United Nations approach, adherence to the moribund "roadmap to democracy" as proposed by the governing generals, holds out no hope that Burma's ills will be fundamentally addressed. Any process adopted by the United Nations must realistically be assessed to be in agreement with the goals of the body – including, in the case of Burma, a meaningful political dialogue and a cessation to rights abuses incurred by Burma's general populace. Supporting the junta's 2010 general election plan, the next step in the "seven-step roadmap," singularly affirms a junta-outlined process and ignores the responsibilities of the United Nations to the country.

One responsibility of the United Nations in Burma, often lost amidst a bombardment of political gambits, is to help in alleviating the pervasive poverty across much of the country. An argument for the need to do whatever is possible to address the country's endemic economic crisis should meet with more immediate broad-based support than any wide ranging political affirmation. And here, depriving the Burmese regime of their seat in the General Assembly can be an effective tool at the disposal of the United Nations to pressure the generals to the negotiating table and into reforms in how the country is managed.

Talks to bandage the gaping wounds of the Burmese body politic would likely be heated and lengthy, but while such a process of political dialogue is being convened there is no reason for the daily plight of the Burmese population to be held hostage to the exchange.

To assist in expediting a dialogue between the junta, opposition parties and the United Nations, the removal of the junta's representative should thus be undertaken for reasons stressing the importance of how a state's authority apparatus interacts with and affects the general populace – as opposed to fixating upon the 1990 election results.

This is an important distinction to make, as Naypyitaw would surely be confounded, and treat with ridicule, a United Nations ruling stripping it of its place in the General Assembly and based on a call of respect for democratic norms; not with supporters of the regime – and far from democratic stalwarts – such as Russia and China likely to be seated on the Credentials Committee. Yet the point can be made to Burma's generals, by stressing the importance of how power is exercised, that they cannot simply expect to hide behind the international protection or obstruction of the powerful illiberal governments of today. Legitimacy must be clearly articulated to also derive from how power is perceived to be exercised.

However, such an emphasis on the nature of a government's functioning does not ignore the political crisis holding the country in limbo. A vacant seat in the General Assembly, far from assigning good and bad labels to the sides in the conflict, simply acknowledges that there is a conflict which must be addressed. An empty seat thus provides both a reason and a forum for dialogue between disparate parties to the countries prolonged political crisis. This would be a valuable asset in the United Nation's continued involvement in Burma, as the body's current endeavors are sorely in need of further and alternative channels of interaction between competing Burmese voices.

Stripping the junta of representation in the General Assembly can thus be inferred as an effective tool to be utilized in reinforcing the United Nation's effort in helping to mediate a solution to the Burmese conflagration. The message would be clear: any Burmese authority desiring to be recognized as legitimate by the international community must understand that how power is exercised is just as, if not more, pivotal than from where the power is deemed to originate.

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Aung San Suu Kyi agrees to accept fresh food supplies
Mizzima News - Solomon
Monday, 15 September 2008 22:50

New Delhi - Burma's detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will accept fresh food supplies on Monday, after refusing deliveries for a month, her party – National League for Democracy – spokesperson said.

"She has agreed to accept food supplies again, so preparations are on to send food this evening," Nyan Win, spokesman of the NLD told Mizzima.

Nyan Win said, the Nobel Peace Laureate has decided to accept food after the ruling junta partially granted some of her demands including her right to receive international news magazines and to receive mails from families and to allow her aides to go out.

"She decided to accept food again because the authorities allowed some points of her demands," said Nyan Win.

But Nyan Win failed to clarify why the Burmese democracy icon has been refusing fresh food supplies since mid-August.

Rather, he said, the detained party leader had made her demands known to the junta authorities through her personal lawyer Kyi Win, who in two months was allowed four visits to her.

Following his fourth visit on Thursday, Kyi Win said the government had partially granted some of Aung San Suu Kyi's demands.

In early September, rumours began circulating that the detained pro-democracy leader is staging a hunger strike against her illegal detention.

Nyan Win on Monday, said it was not true saying, "[Aung san Suu Kyi] told her lawyer that she is not on hunger strike but managed by eating a very limited amount of food in those days."

He added that due to the limited food that she had to manage with for a month, Aung San Suu Kyi is now feeling weak and needed rest.

"She also told her lawyer that she wants to meet U Aung Kyi, when she is in better health," said Nyan Win.

Earlier, Aung San Suu Kyi had turned down a meeting with Aung Kyi, the junta's liason minister, on the ground that she is weak and needed rest, her lawyer Kyi Win said.

On Sunday, Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed a visit by her family doctor Tin Myo Win, who examined her for more than four hours.

While Dr. Tin Myo Win could not be reached for comment, Nyan Win said, "According to a recent agreement [between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi] Tin Myo Win will be allowed to visit her once a month."

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years under house arrest. She was last arrested in May 2003. Her lawyer and her party members said the Burmese law does not permit her to be detained for more than five consecutive years.

But the ruling junta in May renewed her detention period saying their interpretation of the Burmese law allows them to detain her up to a maximum of six years.

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Cyclone Refugees Forced to Leave Camps
The Irrawaddy - By VIOLET CHO, Monday, September 15, 2008

Burmese military authorities have ordered around 5,000 people to leave two refugee camps in Laputta Township, according to local residents and international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) operating in the area.

Staff working for INGOs in Laputta confirmed that local authorities closed the two camps—the Three-Mile and Five-Mile camps—in early September.

Refugees sheltering at the camps were relocated to new sites near the villages of Panae Tong and Mingone Tong, between Laputta and Myaungmya, said sources.

“The relocation sites are in remote areas, a bit far from the main road from Laputta to Myaungmya,” said an aid worker. “With limited support from humanitarian group, refugees have to be self-sufficient and build up new villages.”

Relief workers in Laputta also said that it was difficult for outsiders to gain access to the new sites because they are under military guard.

“The military has taken responsibility for camp security, so even INGOs have to ask permission from military strategic command offices if they want to open clinics or provide other forms of assistance to refugees living in the camps,” said an aid worker in Laputta.

An army sergeant based in Laputta said, however, that humanitarian agencies were still permitted to enter the camps. He added that the tightened security was necessary because of a recent murder.

“A girl was raped and murdered on the road between Laputta and Myaungmya,” said the sergeant, referring to an incident that occurred on September 4. “Military security at the camps is needed to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.”

Meanwhile, as some INGO groups in Laputta said that they hoped to continue providing assistance to people living in the new sites, others said that they would soon be pulling out of the area. 

“We are planning to leave this community by the end of October, after we hand over our work to another organization,” said a local staffer working for the Netherlands- based medical relief agency Artsen Zonder Grenzen, one of the first groups to provide emergency relief in the area affected by Cyclone Nargis.

There are also concerns about the international community’s commitment to meeting relief and reconstruction needs in the Irrawaddy delta, where more than two million people where affected by Cyclone Nargis when it struck on May 2-3.

Surin Pitsuwan, the secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (Asean), said that financial aid of US $1 billion promised by the UN and international humanitarian organizations over the next three years would most likely not be enough because of the magnitude of the destruction in the Irrawaddy delta.

As the chairman of the Humanitarian Task Force coordinating relief and reconstruction efforts by Asean, the UN and the Burmese regime, Surin said he would ask Asean leaders to raise the issue at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York in late September.

“We have to help them survive,” Surin said of the victims of Cyclone Nargis, according to a report in the Bangkok Post.

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Election in 18 Months: USDA Source
The Irrawaddy - By WAI MOE, Monday, September 15, 2008

Burma’s first election in nearly two decades will be held 18 months from now, according to a source in the Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA), a mass organization formed by the country’s ruling junta.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that senior officials of the USDA told its members that the organization has only eighteen months from now to prepare to win the election.

“The USDA may have two parties in the election—the National Prosperity Party and the National Security and Development Party,” the source said. “But nobody, except top members of the USDA, will know exactly until the regime introduces a law on political party registration for the election.”

The law is expected to be announced by the end of this year, he added.

Htay Aung, a Burmese researcher with the Network for Democracy and Development, based in Thailand, also said that he had heard Burma’s military rulers were planning to promulgate the election law for the 2010 election by end of this year or early next year.

“But the junta won’t allow hundreds of parties to register, as they did in 1990. They will copy China, which has eight political parties,” he said.

He added that he didn’t think the whole USDA would be transformed to political parties for the election, but said he believed the USDA would form at least two proxy parties. “The USDA will still be a national organization after the election,” he said.

During his latest visit to Burma from August 18 to 23, the United Nations Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari met with members of other pro-junta political groups that are also likely to participate in the 2010 election.

These include the 88 Generation Students Youths (Union of Myanmar), a splinter group of the democratic opposition led by former student activist Aye Lwin, and the Wun Tha Nu (Patriotic) National League for Democracy, also sponsored by the Burmese junta.

“We can expect to see people like Ko Aye Lwin in the election,” said Htay Aung. “But I think the junta will only allow them to join the election under a pro-junta party banner, not as in freely formed political parties.”

Htay Aung pointed to the fact that the junta stopped Aye Lwin’s group from putting up a signboard in Mandalay as evidence that it wasn’t prepared to allow independent political activity.

Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan, the information minister, said at a press conference on September 8 that arrangements were being made for the multiparty general election in 2010.

“Every political party which is in conformity with the prescriptions of the already approved constitution and rules and laws on political parties to be prescribed in the future will have rights to stand for the 2010 election,” the information minister was quoted as saying in the state-run New Light of Myanmar.

Asked when the election law would be introduced, Kyaw Hsan said: “Authorities concerned are making arrangements for all the matters in time.”

In the last election in 1990, several pro-regime parties, led by the National Unity Party (NUP), were registered. Allied parties of the NUP were the Worker Unity Party, the Farmer Unity Party and the Youth Unity Party.

Although those parties were strongly supported by the military regime, the opposition National League for Democracy won a landslide victory, getting more 80 percent of the seats.

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Through a Baby’s Eyes
The Irrawaddy - By MIN LWIN, Monday, September 15, 2008

Sixteen-month- old Phyu Nay Kyi Min Yu has not seen her mother for more than a year and it could be several more years before her mother holds her again. Her father is not at home either and it’s been left to her aunt and uncle to look after her.

“She is a clever baby,” said her uncle, Myo Min Yu. “She points at her father in photos.”

Of course, Phyu Nay Kyi does not understand that her mother and father are both in prison.

Her mother is prominent anti- government activist Nilar Thein, who had been on the run for more than one year until her arrest in Yankin Township in Rangoon on September 10.

Her father, Kyaw Min Yu (aka Jimmy) is a prominent leader of the 88 Generation Students group. He was arrested on August 21, 2007, along with 12 other activists, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Htay Win Aung, Min Zeya and Mya Aye, after leading a protest against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities.

“We have taken Phyu Nay Kyi Min Yu to Insein prison to visit her father. But she hasn’t touched her mother since she went into hiding,” Myo Min Yu said.

Nilar Thein has been to jail twice already—once in 1991 and once in 1996—for participating in student demonstrations. She was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment in 1996.

“It is a tragedy for the baby—her mother detained in one place and her father in another,” one of the relatives said.

According to a close relative, Nilar Thein was arrested at the house of another activist’s mother, who is in her 70s, who was subsequently interrogated by Burmese military authorities, the day after they arrested Nilar Their at her house.

Meanwhile, London-based human rights group Amnesty International released a statement on Saturday confirming that Nilar Thein had been arrested on September 10 and was at risk of torture and other ill treatment.

On Monday, the 88 Generation Students group also released a statement calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners, including Nilar Thein, and demanding an end to torture and ill treatment of prisoners.

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Authorities arrest relatives of activists

Sep 15, 2008 (DVB)–Friends and relatives of high-profile monk U Gambira and the mother of 88 Generation Student leader Ko Ant Bwe Kyaw have been arrested over the past week.

Fourteen people including relatives and friends of U Gambira were arrested last week in Rangoon and Meikhtila in Mandalay.

U Gambira’s sister Ma Khin Thu Htay said her husband Ko Moe Htet Hlyan and five of his friends were arrested in Rangoon by about 15 police officers on 9 September.

"They raided our house at around 7.30pm on Tuesday evening and began searching the house before they took my husband away," Ma Khin Thu Htay said.

"They also seized his computer, a memory stick, a paper-cutter, a bag containing discs and an MP4 player," she said.

"I don't know where my husband is being held – the officials haven’t contacted us again."

She said the officials had wanted to arrest her too but decided to let her go because she is seven months pregnant.

"The officials said they had received information that my husband was planning to raise a lantern on the anniversary of last year's Saffron Revolution," she said.

Authorities also arrested eight local youths including U Gambira's younger brother Ko Aung Ko Ko Lwin from their houses in Meikhtila on last Thursday, Ma Khin Thu Htay said.

Daw Tin Tin Win, 75, mother of 88 Generation Student leader Ko Ant Bwe Kyaw, was arrested on Friday afternoon, according to neighbours.

Well-known writer Daw Kyi Oo, who lives next door to Daw Tin Tin Win and is the mother of comedian Zarganar, said she was concerned about Daw Tin Tin Win’s health.

"Daw Tin Tin Win has been really unwell – I was thinking of telling her son, if he is ever let out again, to just concentrate on his mother and take care of her instead of doing other things," Daw Kyi Oo said.

"A lot of her neighbours and people who know her are sorry to hear about her arrest –but arresting a person like this who can't even walk is not even strange to us any more," she said.

"I just hope they release her very soon."

U Gambira, leader of the All Burmese Monks Alliance, has been detained since November last year for his role in instigating public protests in September.

Ko Ant Bwe Kyaw is one of the leaders of the 88 Generation Students group and was arrested with other group leaders in August last year.

Reporting by Yee May Aung and Naw Say Phaw

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