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Amnesty group looks into Myanmar |
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November 22, 2000
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Amnesty International on Wednesday called for Myanmar's military government to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and nine other leaders of her party from house arrest. ``All 10 of these leaders are prisoners of conscience, arrested solely for their peaceful political opposition activities,'' the London-based human rights organization said in a statement received in Bangkok. Suu Kyi and the other senior members of her National League for Democracy have been under virtual house arrest since Sept. 21 after she was blocked from traveling in the country by train. She has been similarly stopped on several occasions in the past. Security forces hauled Suu Kyi and deputy party leader Tin Oo out of the Yangon railway station after they tried to travel to Myanmar's second-biggest city, Mandalay, for legal political organizing. Amnesty International said 80 party members and supporters who were detained when they went to greet Suu Kyi at the rail station are being held at Insein Prison, Myanmar's largest jail. ``There are fears for their health, as torture of political prisoners is common in Myanmar,'' Amnesty International said. Myanmar's ruling military, which kept Suu Kyi under formal house arrest from 1989 to 1995, refused to hand over power to the National League for Democracy after it overwhelmingly won a general election in 1990. In the wake of the polls, it has harassed and arrested hundreds of party members. Amnesty International said 1,700 political prisoners are currently held in prisons throughout Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. It alleged that ``widespread harassment, surveillance, and other forms of control such as forced party resignations are all used ... to silence any opposition and keep the population in a state of fear.'' |