Min Ko Naing Needs Urgent Medical Attention, NLD Says

The imprisoned activist Min Ko Naing is in urgent need of medical attention, according to the National League for Democracy (NLD).

NLD spokesman Khin Maung Swe said Min Ko Naing, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group—most of whom are now in prison—was suffering from hypertension (abnormally high blood pressure). Khin Maung Swe said he had been told by the activist's sister that he urgently needed proper medical attention.

Min Ko Naing and other members of the 88 Generation Students group were seen in August 2007.

Min Ko Naing was arrested in August 2007, along with more than a dozen other members of the 88 Generation Students group, after leading demonstrations against steeply rising prices. The demonstrations preceded massive protests the following month, which were brutally suppressed by the regime.

Min Ko Naing was sentenced to 65 years imprisonment and was sent to a remote prison in Kengtung, Shan State, one of the coldest areas in the country. The prison has no resident medical staff.

Min Ko Naing is one of 128 political prisoners in poor health, the AAPP said. More than 2,100 political prisoners are detained in prisons scattered throughout Burma.

Bo Kyi, joint-secretary of the AAPP, said the Burmese authorities were deliberately torturing prisoners in cold areas of the country by denying them the possibility of keeping warm. Remote prisons also lacked proper medical care, he said.

Two political prisoners, Hla Myo Naung and Than Lwin, needed treatment for eye injuries, Bo Kyi said.  The mother of one prisoner, Pyone Cho, said she was worried about his health after not hearing from him for some time. Pyone Cho, a member of the 88 Generation Students group, is imprisoned in Kawthaung, southern Burma.

In October, Ni Mo Hlaing, an NLD member imprisoned in Thayet, Magwe Division, fell ill with typhoid fever. Her condition has steadily deteriorated, according to the AAPP.