Dissident Leaders Transferred to Remote Prisons

At least 21 convicted political prisoners, including Buddhist monks, 88 Student Generation group leader Min Ko Naing and prominent human rights activist Su Su Nway, were transferred from Rangoon's Insein Prison to remote prisons around Burma on Saturday night and early Sunday morning—with more prisoners expected to follow in the coming days, according to family and friends.

Well-known dissident Min Ko Naing and eight other leading 88 Generation Students group activists—Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho, Mya Aye, Htay Kywe, Hla Myo Naung, Aung Thu, Nyan Lin and Aung Naing (aka Myo Aung Naing)—were each sentenced on November 11 at a court session in Maubin, southwest of Rangoon, to 65 years in prison for their roles in the anti-government uprising last year, bringing the total number of activists receiving 65-year jail sentences to 23.

According to families and friends, nine of the activists were brought back from Maubin to Insein Prison on November 15, while at least eight political prisoners were transferred to prisons far from Rangoon at 3 a.m. On Sunday.
 
Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi were transferred to Kengtung Prison in Shan State, 735 miles (1,1750 km) northeast of Rangoon; Mya Aye was transferred to Loikaw Prison in Karenni State, eastern Burma; Pyone Cho (aka Htay Win Aung) was transferred to Kawthaung Prison in Tenasserim Division in southern Burma; Htay Kywe was transferred to Buthitaung Prison in Arakan State, western Burma; Hla Myo Naung was transferred to Myitkyina Prison in Kachin State, 900 miles (1,440 km) north of Rangoon; Aung Thu was transferred to Putao Prison in Kachin State; and Aung Naing (aka Myo Aung Naing) was transferred to Kalaymyo Prison in Sagaing Division, 680 miles (1,088 km) north of Rangoon.

Labor activist Su Su Nway, who was sentenced to twelve and a half years in jail recently, poet Saw Wai, well-known musician Win Maw and two other former student leaders—Myat San and Tint San—were transferred to Mandalay Prison, according to sources in Rangoon.

On Friday, Ein Khaing Oo, a reporter for the Rangoon-based weekly Eco Vision, was sentenced to two years in prison. She was arrested on June 10 for covering a protest by about 20 victims of Cyclone Nargis in front of a UN office in Rangoon.

Most of the other detainees were sentenced for their alleged roles in the nationwide protests in August-September 2007 against economic hardship or for working independently to help cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta in May.

Among those awaiting verdicts are leading Buddhist monk U Gambira and comedian-cum-social worker Zarganar. They face up to 50 years in prison, according to lawyers in the former Burmese capital.

Amnesty International said that Burma currently has more than 2,100 political prisoners.