Myanmar junta jails two members of Aung San Suu Kyi's party ( AFP ) September 6, 2002


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Myanmar junta jails two members of Aung San Suu Kyi's party

YANGON, Sept 5 (AFP)

Two members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) have been sentenced to three years in jail for possessing a journal published by exiled dissidents, party sources said Thursday.

The two, Aung Thein and Kyaw Naing Oo, both members of the NLD youth wing, were arrested on August 22 and tried successively on August 23 and 26, NLD officials said.

They were found guilty under a 1950 emergency provision act and sentenced Thursday, even as seven other NLD members were released from jail in a gesture designed to mark a European Union delegation visit to Yangon this weekend.

Myanmar's ruling junta announced Thursday that 39 women prisoners and another prisoner jailed "for connection with unlawful organisations" had been freed from jail along with the seven NLD ahead of Sunday's EU mission.

Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed since the beginning of 2001 in goodwill gestures linked with fledgling talks between the junta and the opposition, but some 1,500 are believed to be still incarcerated.

Since being freed in May from 19 months under house arrest, NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said her party's top priority is to secure the release of all the political prisoners in the country's jails.The Nobel Peace laureate suggested last month that a mass release would be a precondition to her beginning a long-awaited political dialogue with the regime.

The Thailand-based magazine Irrawaddy quoted family sources as saying that the pair sentenced Thursday were beaten during their arrest for possessing the New Era (Khit Pyaing) journal, which is published by dissidents in Bangkok.

Kyaw Naing Oo's family said he received five stitches in his head as a result of injuries sustained during an attack by five or six police officers as he walked near Rangoon's Thiri Mingalar market.The magazine said the two are active members of the NLD, and are also close to Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"They accompanied Aung San Suu Kyi on some of her political trips," one friend told The Irrawaddy. "Thats also one of the reasons why we think they were arrested in such a harsh way."

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