Another NLD leader released

DVB ( 26 November 2003 )

The military junta of Burma, the SPDC released another top NLD leader on 24 November and four were released on the day before. They were arrested and put under house arrest following the attack on NLD supporters by SPDC-sponsored thugs at Dipeyin in upper Burma on May 30.

NLD Central Executive Committee (CEC) members U Than Tun, U Hla Pe, U Nyunt Wei, U Soe Myint were released first on 23 November and U Loon Tin was released on the following day.

U Nyan Win, elected representative of Paung Township said that the released leaders believe that there should be an independent inquiry into the Dipeyin incident and the results of the 1990 general election should be honoured and the elected representatives should take the leading role in drawing up a new state constitution.

Dr. San Aung of exiled NCGUB (National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma) said that the SPDC has been using divide and rule tactic to split up the NLD by detaining some leaders and releasing some.

‘If the regime is sincere and working towards national reconciliation, it should release all political prisoners unconditionally’, insisted U Thein Nyunt, the elected representative of Thingangyun Township, Rangoon.

The releases of these political prisoners coincide with SPDC’s attempt to reconvene its ‘National Convention’ and the UN General Assembly’s decision to vote on human rights records in Burma. The NLD leaders and members throughout Burma are also intensifying pressures on the regime.

‘The SPDC should have never detained these leaders in the first place and their releases won’t make any difference’, insisted Ko Tate Naing of AAPP (Assistance Association for Political Prisoners) based in Thailand.

NLD vice chairman Tin Oo was in jail in the town of Kalay, northern Burma and the three others were under house arrest in Rangoon.

The U.N. human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro recently said that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would not accept her own liberty until 35 NLD figures held since May 30 were released.

But her telephone at her lakeside villa in Rangoon is cut off and visitors have to get government permission to see her.