Indaw Township-NLD member arrested

DVB ( July 30, 2003 )

It is reported that Ko Thant Shin, the NLD organiser Indaw Township, Sagaing Division was arrested and sentenced to one year in prison on the 17th of July.

Ko Thant Shin’s ‘Meik Set’ Restaurant was raided on the 15th of July and he was arrested and sentenced two days later. Ten other restaurants were raided but their owners were neither arrested nor prosecuted.

U Maung Maung Than, the MP of Yamethin, Mandalay Division told the DVB about it as follows:

U Maung Maung Than : They raided Ko Thant’s Shin’s ‘Meik Set’ restaurant and ten other restaurants in Indaw with the intention of searching and seizing illegal booze. They arrested Ko Thant Shin on the 15th of July and he was sentenced to one year in prison. Other owners were not prosecuted but they sentenced the NLD organiser to one year in prison.

DVB : The other restaurants and shops, are they the normal ones or owned by the NLD?

U Maung Maung Than : They are not owned by the NLD members. There are ten in all. One of them is owned by a civil servant from township legal department and the rest are owned by civilians. They are not prosecuted. Only U Thant Shin was prosecuted and imprisoned.

The NLD members do not even have the basic rights of normal citizens, added U Maung Maung Than:

U Maung Maung Than : We are tried in prisons. We have lost all the rights to be tried in front of the people. We don’t feel good about prosecuting legal matters and the like. We have been fighting for human rights and democracy for 15 years. We even haven’t got the legal rights of a normal citizen. We are being oppressed more and more. The oppression is one-sided. They are doing everything and by all means they could so that we could not do anything.