At Least 23 Political Prisoners Freed in Amnesty

After serving 18 years in prison, a leading member of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) was among the political prisoners released in Saturday’s amnesty of 6,313 prisoners.

Dr Zaw Myint Maung, a victor in the 1990 general election, was freed from Myitkyina prison, Kachin State, after 18 years and three months of incarceration there and in Rangoon’s Insein Prison.

“Concentrating on a commitment to democracy kept us mentally and physically fit in prison,” said the 56-year-old physician after his release.

After winning the right to represent Amarapura Township, Mandalay Division, in the 1990 election, Zaw Myint Maung was arrested later that year and charged with trying to form a provisional government in Mandalay, contrary to Article 122 (1) of the Penal Code. He was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

Zaw Myint Maung was sentenced to a further 12 years after he and other political prisoners, including Win Tin, produced a magazine entitled New Blood Wave, marking the 75th anniversary of Rangoon University, and after attempting to report on human rights violations in the prison.

In 1997, the government transferred Zaw Myint Maung and other political prisoners to remote prisons. “We were the first to be transferred to the furthest prisons from Rangoon,” he said.

Zaw Myint Maung and other political prisoners suffered severe privations in prison, and his wife, Dr Yu Yu May, said his health deteriorated there. “It was very hard,” her husband confirmed.

Zaw Myint Maung graduated from Mandalay Institute of Medicine in 1973 and worked at Mandalay University prior to the 1988 nationwide pro-democracy uprising.