BurmaNet News, May 19, 2010

[Editor]

May 19, 2010, Issue #3965

INSIDE BURMA
Global Post: Myanmar: Hip-hop's revolution
Mizzima: Heat wave conditions to force change in university timings
Mizzima: Six junta soldiers defect to Arakan militia
Irrawaddy: USDA continues to harass water volunteers
Xinhua: Cyclone Laila assumed not moving towards Myanmar

BUSINESS / TRADE
Irrawaddy: Six Burmese businessmen seek private banking licenses
SHAN: Junta runs underground mine in Shan State North

HEALTH / AIDS
Bernama: Some 230 die of heat stress in Myanmar
DVB: HIV rates among Asian men ‘alarming’

INTERNATIONAL
Reuters: U.S. says troubled by Myanmar developments
DVB: US media law ‘won’t affect’ Burma

PRESS RELEASE
AAPPB: A political prisoner passed away in Myingyan prison

____________________________________
INSIDE BURMA

May 19, Global Post
Myanmar: Hip-hop's revolution - Alex Ellgee

Mae Sot, Thailand — Behind the rusty prison bars, two men lie on the floor
in light blue fatigues. A stream of light pours in through a small window
near the top of their cell. All is still.

Suddenly, loud music begins to blare. The men leap up and clang their iron
shackles as smoke drifts into their cell. They start singing against a
heavy beat: “Never turn back, never give up.”

Despite appearances, these men are not criminals and they are not in
prison — at least not in a literal sense.

9KT and MK are famous Myanmar hip-hop artists on the set of their latest
music video, "Never Give Up." Donning black masks and using pseudonyms,
these musicians aim to keep their political tunes under the radar of a
dictatorship as oppressive as Myanmar, formerly called Burma.

“We wanted to film in a prison cell in order to represent for all our
members and friends who are now behind bars,” said 9KT, arranging his mask
on the set of the music video. “We are trying to tell the government, even
if they imprison us they cannot stop us fighting for freedom; we will
always carry on.”

“We are telling the people that they shouldn’t give up,” he said. “Burmese
youth can’t be afraid of the Burmese junta, they need to fight for freedom
in our country.”

Watch a draft of the "Never Give Up" music video:

Already a prominent hip-hop artist in Myanmar, 9KT grew inspired to make
more subversive songs when he heard the political hip-hop of refugees from
his country in Australia. He wanted to similarly address the extreme
suffering he saw around him.

He traveled to Mae Sot, Thailand, near the Myanmar border, more than a
year ago. The area has for more than two decades played host to an array
of organizations opposing the Myanmar junta.

There, he joined up with an underground political group called Generation
Wave (GW). He later met MK through GW, and they immediately found common
ground in their love for music and the desire to “wake up the youth.” In
Mae Sot, they can produce their music with relative safety, away from the
police presence in Yangon, Myanmar's capital.

GW itself was formed after the "Saffron Revolution" in September 2007 when
rising fuel prices provoked thousands of monks to take to the streets in
protest. Civilians joined the movement, but the military junta cracked
down, leaving hundreds dead and thousands imprisoned.

Following the crackdown, a group of protesters, who had been friends since
high school, started GW as a way to inspire new activists inside Myanmar.
Having analyzed revolutions worldwide and the opposition movement in their
country they decided to focus on non-violent resistance.

In two and half years, the group has carried out what they call “action
campaigns” almost every week. Their main activities include
anti-government graffiti in busy places, handing out pamphlets and writing
and distributing political music.

“The youth of Burma have seen so many activists thrown behind bars, they
have seen monks killed in the streets, so many are turning their back to
the struggle for human rights,” said Min Yan Naing, founder of GW. “Our
job and aim is to bring them back and make them feel the responsibility to
change our country and better the lives for all Burmese people.”

Just association with GW risks a hefty prison sentence. Thirty GW members
have been arrested. Nyie Chan was handed the longest sentence, 32 years,
and is said to be suffering from severe stomach problems in Myanmar’s
notorious Insein prison near Yangon.

Zayar Thaw, another famous hip-hop artist, was arrested and sentenced to
six years. Minutes before Zayar Thaw was sentenced, he wrote a statement,
which was leaked to GW members. “Tell the people to have the courage to
reject the things they don’t like, and even if they don’t dare to openly
support the right thing, tell them not to support the wrong thing,” he
said in his statement.

The young musician pioneered the hip-hop industry in Myanmar, releasing
the first-ever rap album in the country in 2003. The rock ‘n’ roll music
fans of Myanmar’s crumbling cities found a new passion overnight.

Zayar Thaw's thirst for hip-hop was married to his desire to further
democracy in Myanmar. The most prolific of GW campaigns, which saw the
phrase “Change New Government” being applied to Change Nitric Gas
stickers, was his brainchild. This motto is also spray-painted across the
gate of GW’s safe house in Mae Sot.

All the walls of the GW safe house are covered in graffiti. One wall has
“Freedom” splattered across it. Another has "Generation Wave" stenciled in
red, with a large clenched fist giving a thumbs up — GW’s logo.

9KT’s latest album, “Never Give Up,” is a direct message to youth. Eleven
tracks, to be released in October in time with Myanmar's elections, mix
rock and hip-hop. One song called “If We All Unite,” talks about coming
together to topple the government; while another, “Negative Thinking,” is
a comic song that mocks the generals for their bad intentions.

“Music can change everything. Popular music can change a lot,” he said.
“When I was young and heard celebrities singing happy songs, it made me
happy, if they sang angrily, it made me angry — so I hope if the people
hear political songs from familiar voices they will become interested in
politics.”

The cameraman at the music video shoot takes an aerial position. 9KT
shakes a can of spray paint and skillfully tags "2010," to represent the
upcoming elections, on the concrete floor. Without delay he whips out his
second can and aggressively paints a white cross over the digits.

Angrily, he stamps on it and walks off. With a bit of luck a dog walks
over the graffiti. Since dogs are considered lowly creatures, cheers arise
from the group which believes the upcoming election will be a sham — a
belief furthered by new election laws that for the first time allow the
junta to legally arrest opposition politicians who did not register.

As the camera and lights get packed up GW members sit around a table with
guitars discussing their upcoming furtive campaigns.

“We have to do as many as possible during the elections,” Min Yan Naing
told the group. “A revolution is evolving, it might not happen over night
but at least the people will soon realize they have the right to be free.”

____________________________________

May 19, Mizzima News
Heat wave conditions to force change in university timings - Salai Tun

New Delhi – Heat wave conditions are likely to force changes in timings of
Technical Universities in three Divisions, in keeping with a Ministry of
Science and Technology directive early this month.

The maximum day temperatures hovered between 42 to 45 degree Celsius in
Magwe, Mandalay and Sagaing Divisions this month.

The timings of three Technology Universities in Mandalay, Sagaing and
Magwe Divisions in the tropical zone, are likely to be changed.

The normal timings for classes of six out of seven TUs are from 8 am to 11
am and noon to 4 pm. The timings of six TUs will be from 7 am to 11 am as
of this week.

“TUs in three States have an advisory from the Ministry in advance. Though
there have been no cases of fever so far, students are unable to stay in
classrooms for long durations due to profuse sweating and exhaustion.
Diarrhoea and other diseases may break out because of the intense heat,”
Mechanical Engineering Department Head Dr. Thant Zin Win from Kyaukse TU
in Mandalay Division told Mizzima.

“The heat is making it difficult for us to teach. Earlier we could take
three lessons but now we can take only one. We need to take frequent
breaks while teaching, delaying the completion of the syllabus. So we need
to expedite teaching when the weather is tolerable,” he added.

Similarly TUs in Kalay and Mon Ywa in Sagaing Division have changed their
class timings.

“Our school changed the timings because it’s too hot. Since there are no
air conditioners in classrooms we cannot stay long. There are about 60
students in each classroom with only one ceiling fan. We suffer
exhaustion,” a woman second year student from Kalay TU said.

There are Mandalay, Kyaukse and Meiktila TUs in Mandalay Division, Mon Ywa
and Kalay TUs in Sagaing Division, Magwe and Pakokku TUs in Magwe
Division. Magwe TU did not change its timings.

“Our school did not change the school timings despite an advisory from the
Science and Technology Ministry. The directive says the TUs may change
their school timings as the weather is too hot. But the students do not
want to change the school timings,” a woman teacher from Magwe TU said.

TUs were first set up in 1998 and there are now 20 Technological
Universities in Irrawaddy, Sagaing, Mandalay, Magwe, Tanintharyi, Pegu and
Rangoon Divisions and Kayah, Karen, Mon, Kachin, Shan and Rakhine States.

____________________________________

May 19, Mizzima News
Six junta soldiers defect to Arakan militia - Khai Suu

New Delhi– Six Burmese Army soldiers including a corporal have defected to
the Arakan Liberation Army from a battalion based in Sittwe in Arakan
State, the separatist militia’s spokesman said yesterday.

After killing their commander, Captain Htet Aung Htun, the men from
Infantry Battalion 232 based in Sittwe, Arakan (Rakhine) State defected on
Sunday, carrying with them arms and ammunition, Arakan Liberation Army
(ALA) said.

They were Corporal Than Aye, 36, (tag number Ta/75184), Lance Corporal Moe
Aung,  26, (Ta/116574); Lance Corporal Maung Maung Naing, 26, (Ta/121743);
Private Zaw Min Oo, 25, (Ta/401336); and, Private San Win, 27, (Ta/423148)
joined the ALA.

“This area is dominated by both of us [junta troops and the ALA] and
movements of our forces are criss-crossing this area,” ALA Joint Secretary
Khai Thu Kha. “They know well where we are and vice versa. So they came
and surrendered to us.”

The defectors were being kept at a secure location, he said.

“We welcome them and are glad to see them joining us,” he said. “Since
they have not yet reached our headquarters, we have not arranged anything
for them.”

“We will help them only after asking them about their intentions. We have
given similar assistance to troop defectors before”, he added.

They brought with them five MA-11 and two MA-3 rifles, one MA-79 grenade
launcher and 19 shells, one B-100 commando mortar with 12 shells, one 9mm
pistol with two magazine boxes and 14 bullets, six hand grenades, six M-16
landmines, 10 equipment bags, six backpacks, one large radio set and about
1,300 other assorted ammunition pieces, the ALA said.

A mobile frontline column from Yechanpyin village, the battalion is led by
acting commander Major Kyaw Moe Hein and is stationed near Ngweletwa
village, in Paletwa. The reserve platoon under this column was led by Htet
Aung Htun and is stationed at the Myeikwa India-Burma border outpost.

In 2007, two soldiers with arms and ammunition defected to the ALA
operating along the border in Sittwe and Maungdaw districts in Arakan and
Paletwa in Chin State.

____________________________________

May 19, Irrawaddy
USDA continues to harass water volunteers - Ko Htwe

Members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association(USDA) continue
to try to co-opt  local volunteer groups who try to distribute water in
drought-stricken areas of Burma.

One group, on their way to a drought-stricken area in Waw Township in Pegu
Division, was stopped by police, volunteers told The Irrawaddy. They said
police took the leader's name, car license number and recorded the amount
of water to be donated.

Myat Hla, the former party chairman of the defunct National League of
Democracy (NLD) in Pegu Township, said, “Authorities are ordering
volunteer donors to distribute water wherever they want, and they give
them a USDA flag  to put on the vehicles, but most volunteers throw the
flags away.”

A fierce heat wave in Burma has combined with a drought to create serious
water shortages in many parts of the country. Many local volunteers have
raised money to finance emergency water distribution to areas in need.

Emergency supplies are being transported into the hardest-hit communities,
some of which have been reduced to drinking river water. Local residents
say the military remains largely inactive as ponds and rivers dry up in
many areas due to high temperatures and the late monsoon rains.

Actor Kyaw Thu, who works with a leading Rangoon-based charity, the Free
Funeral Services Society (FFSS), told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “If they
want us to display their flag, we cannot accept that. We will procede with
the label of the FFSS.”

The FFSS provides free clinic and funeral services in the country's former
capital and actively helped victims of cyclone Nargis in 2008.

Aye Myint, a leading labor activist in Pegu Division, told The Irrawaddy
that on Monday  USDA members hired 50 trishaws, placed purified water on
them and  took photographs to show that they are distributing water.

“After taking the  photo, they paid money to the trishaw drivers and sent
them back. They pretended that they were donating water,” Aye Myint said.

Donors who planned to take water to Dala Township, located on the southern
bank of the Rangoon River just across from the city, said, “The USDA tried
to put their flags and labels on our vehicles. Donors who don't like that
chose not to go. But some donors who want to distribute water bear it and
put it on anyway.”

____________________________________

May 19, Xinhua
Cyclone Laila assumed not moving towards Myanmar

Yangon - Cyclone Laila at yellow level occurring over Southwest Bay of
Bengal is assumed not moving towards Myanmar, an official daily reported
Wednesday quoting a forecast of the Myanmar Meteorology and Hydrology
Department.

However, due to the influence of the storm, squalls with rough seas are
likely at times off and along Myanmar coast at a wind speed of between 56
and 64 km per hour, said the New Light of Myanmar.

According to observations recorded on Tuesday evening, cyclone Laila moved
southwestwards with its center in the sea about 352 km east of Chinnai,
India at a maximum wind speed of about 80 km per hour.

The storm is forecast to move northwestwards.

Meanwhile, the first heavy rainfall formally poured onto Myanmar's Yangon
on Monday night after experiencing two month-long red-hot summer,
initially bringing down the city's temperature from as high as over 42
degree Celsius.

The rainfall with lightning marked the beginning of the rainy season this
year which Yangon residents are long expecting amid extreme hot summer.

____________________________________
BUSINESS / TRADE

May 19, Irrawaddy
Six Burmese businessmen seek private banking licenses - Nayee Lin Latt

Burma's wealthiest tycoon Tay Za and five other businessmen close to the
military regime have applied for permits to establish private banks.

Apart from Tay Za, the five were named by business sources as Zaw Zaw (Max
Myanmar Co., Ltd.), Nay Aung (IGE Co., Ltd.), Chit Khaing (Eden Group Co.,
Ltd.), Dr. Sai Sam Htun (Loi Hein Co., Ltd) and Htun Myint Naing (Asia
World Co., Ltd.).

“They submitted applications in Naypyidaw on Tuesday,” said a businessman,
speaking anonymously. “It's not known who will get  permission.”

Burma's central bank began issuing banking licenses within the private
sector in 1992, but the bank says none has been granted since 2002.

A businessman within the banking sector said: “If people wanted to do
banking business, they had to register their companies and then apply for
a banking license at the central bank. Normally, the central bank
discussed with them before they were granted.
“Those who have applied now are all close to the authorities so I don't
know what kind of give-and-take will take place in the discussions.”

An official at Loi Hein Co., Ltd said the company would establish a
private bank as soon as it received a permit.

“There will be more private banks within a decade if work permits are
available,” he said.

Fourteen private banks, mostly based in Rangoon, are currently operating
in Burma. In 1998, Burma had 20 private banks.

____________________________________

May 19, Shan Herald Agency for News
Junta runs underground mine in Shan State North - Hseng Khio Fah

An unknown mining project by the ruling military is being secretly
operating in Shan State North’s Kyaukme Township, local sources said.

The project site was located in Nawngping village tract, south of the
Lashio-Mandalay highway. Security has been very tight around the site.
Outsiders are banned from visiting the site including its own officers, a
local villager who lives near the project site said.

The number of workers in the site is over 500 and more will be coming
soon, he said. “Because of this news, many villagers from other villages
have come to open shops and restaurants in the vicinity.”

The Burmese military has ordered workers not to release any information
about the project, said another source. “They [junta] informed people that
it is only for hydro power project.”

“Everything dug out is put in boxes and carried to Naypyitaw directly,”
she said, “Workers also don’t know what they are.”

An informed source said Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC), was reported to have visited the
site in the second week of April.

According to some local residents, it is expected to be coal mining as
some of coal and metal company had reported been there for inspection two
years ago. But others are skeptical, “Why should they be so secretive, if
it’s only coal?” asked one rhetorically.

____________________________________
HEALTH / AIDS

May 19,  Bernama
Some 230 die of heat stress in Myanmar

Yangon -- At least 230 people have died of heat stress in Myanmar's second
largest city of Mandalay during the weekend, as temperature recorded at 45
degree Celsius, the local daily quoted Mandalay municipal authorities as
reporting Wednesday.

The red-hot temperature has brought many patients of all ages to the
Mandalay General Hospital and private clinics, reports China's Xinhua news
agency citing the daily.

Among the dead, most were liquor drinkers, the report said, adding that
following this, the Mandalay local authorities have banned selling of
liquor in the city.

The excessively high weather temperature too dried up some drinking water
ponds in suburban areas in Yangon.

It is reported that thousands of fishes, bred in ponds in the country's
southwestern Ayeyawaddy division, died of heat stress daily, local fish
breeders said.

There were even some cases that all 100,000 fishes died in a single day in
Twantay township, Yangon division.

Excessively hot weather temperature in Myanmar over the past two months
broke the highest in the history.


>From late April through to the mid-May, the day temperatures in central

Myanmar were reaching a record high in over four decades, peaking at
between 43 and 47 degree Celsius in such regions as Minbu, Magway,
Mandalay, Monywa, Nyaung Oo, Chauk and Mingyan as well as in Yangon and
Bago over the past week, which are 5 to 8 degree Celsius above April
average temperature

____________________________________

May 19, Democratic Voice of Burma
HIV rates among Asian men ‘alarming’ - Francis Wade

A serious shortage in use of contraception by gay and bisexual men in the
Asia-Pacific region, coupled with criminalisation of the practice, is
causing “alarming” rates of HIV.

The warning was issued in a joint report by the UN Development Programme,
the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCPM) and the
University of Hong Kong’s Center for Comparative and Public Law. It said
that around 90 percent of gay and bisexual men in the region do not have
access to contraception.

Statistics for HIV/AIDS rates among this demographic in Rangoon have
sparked alarm; according to the report, 29.3 percent are infected versus
0.7 percent of the total adult population in Burma. In Bangkok it is 30.8
percent compared to 1.4 percent in Thailand, and in Mumbai it is 17
percent versus 0.36 percent in all of India. The UN also warned last year
that 18 percent of female sex workers in Burma were infected with HIV.

The report points a finger at the criminalisation of homosexuality across
the region. “Nineteen of 48 countries in the Asia Pacific region
criminalize male-to-male sex, and these laws often take on the force of
vigilantism, often leading to abuse and human rights violations,” it says.

Although an archaic law introduced during the British rule of Burma that
outlaws homosexual activity is rarely used now, stigmatisation remains.
The Burmese government last year marked World AIDS Day with an article in
the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper linking the disease to
“socially unacceptable behaviour”.

Deeply conservative social norms, combined with record low government
healthcare expenditure and limited health-related education are driving
the problem in Burma. The cocktail of problems raises fears that the
global effectiveness in combating the disease may not be so prominent in
the pariah Southeast Asian country.

When no punitive measures are used against male-to-male sex, homosexuals,
bisexuals and transgender individuals are still “subject to police abuses
and are targeted by police for other offences relating to public order,
vagrancy, prostitution and obscenity,” the report says.

“If countries fail to address the legal context of the epidemic, this
already critical situation is likely to become worse,” it said. The report
was launched to coincide with World Day Against Homophobia.

Despite the ominous warnings, however, rates of HIV infection in Burma
have levelled off in recent years, from one percent of the population in
2000 to 0.7 percent today, the UN said last year.

Furthermore, figures released by the UNAIDS programme for 2008 found that
the number of new HIV infections in Asia had dropped by 15 percent since
2001. Globally, there has been a 30 percent drop since the disease peaked
in 1996.

____________________________________
INTERNATIONAL

May 19, Reuters
U.S. says troubled by Myanmar developments

The top U.S. diplomat for Asia said on Wednesday Washington is troubled
that Myanmar has not moved on any of the issues standing in the way of
better American ties with the military-ruled state.

Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific,
said his visit to Myanmar this month for talks with the military left him
disappointed on a full range of bilateral disputes.

"The United States remains quite dissatisfied with what we've seen to date
in terms of movement on the part of the government with the specific
issues that we've laid out," he said.

Campbell had called on Myanmar to hold dialogue with opposition parties
and ethnic groups ahead of elections this year and for the the immediate
release of the country's estimated 2,100 political prisoners.

He had also expressed concern that Myanmar was seeking to acquire nuclear
technology from North Korea in violation of U.N. Security Council
sanctions.

"On each of these issues were are troubled by developments," Campbell told
a news briefing.

Campbell's visit followed up a trip in November last year -- the first to
the former Burma in 14 years by a senior U.S. official -- under
Washington's new policy of deeper engagement with a regime it has
disparaged for years.

He met with government officials, leaders of opposition parties and ethnic
groups and long-detained Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the
country's charismatic pro-democracy icon.

____________________________________

May 19, Democratic Voice of Burma
US media law ‘won’t affect’ Burma - Ahunt Phone Myat

A new US law signed this week that will single out governments that
restrict press freedom will have little impact on Burma, media workers
inside the country have said.

President Obama on Monday ratified a bill that requires the state
department to compile a public list of governments which violate
journalistic freedoms. It was passed in honour of US journalist Daniel
Pearl, who was killed in Pakistan in 2002 whilst on assignment with The
Wall Street Journal.

But journalists in Burma, a country that consistently ranks at the
tail-end of press freedom indexes, say that outside pressure on the
country’s military rulers to lift draconian media restrictions rarely has
an impact.

“[Press freedom] only depends on the politics that dominates the country;
if [the junta’s] politics is likely to be affected in a big way, they will
continue to hold onto the status quo
 there is not much hope for that,”
said an editor from a Burmese news journal, speaking to DVB on condition
of anonymity.

The vice-chairman of the Thailand-based Burma Media Association (BMA), Zin
Lin, added that the intransigence of the Burmese junta, which has ruled
the country in various forms since 1962 and introduced some of the world’s
harshest media laws, made the US bill merely symbolic.

“The international community can warn and denounce them [the generals],
and can give journalists inside Burma awards as a way of encouraging them,
but as long as you can’t change the military machinery [or] remove the
press scrutiny board, the prospect of press freedom in Burma remains
distant.”

Around 15 journalists are currently behind bars in Burma, including DVB
reporters Hla Hla Win, Win Zaw and Ngwe Soe Lin. Hla Hla Win was handed a
35-year sentence last year after recording interviews with monks, while
Ngwe Soe Lin had filmed footage for the award-winning Channel 4
documentary ‘Orphan’s of Burma’s Cyclone’, and was given 13 years.

Burma last year ranked 171 out of 175 countries in the Reporters Without
Borders’ annual Press Freedom Index, above Turkmenistan, Eritrea, North
Korea and Iran.

Obama told AFP that the new law “sends a strong message from the US
government and the state department that we’re paying attention on how
foreign governments are operating when it comes to the press.”

But recent attempts by the US to nudge the ruling junta towards democratic
transition appear to have been ignored by the generals, who are gearing up
for elections this year that look set to entrench military rule.

Another newspaper editor told DVB that the lack of success by the US,
including a recent visit by senior envoy Kurt Campbell, showed that
“nothing has changed” in the country.

“What is happening now is that reporters can’t do anything here. When they
go into the field where something serious has happened, they get
arrested,” he said. “Nothing has changed. You will see that the situation
only gets worse.”

____________________________________
PRESS RELEASE

May 19, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
A Political Prisoner Passed Away in Myingyan Prison

We, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), have
learnt that Ko Kyaw Soe passed away in Myingyan Prison on the morning of
19 May 2010, at age 39. He is the 144th political prisoner to die in
prison, in Burma. AAPP expresses its deepest condolences to the family of
Kyaw Soe (aka) Kyaw Kyaw Soe (aka) Jeffery.

Ko Kyaw Soe, a member of the Human Rights Defenders and Promoters Network,
known as HRDP, was arrested at his residence, No. 264, Shu Mhyaw Khin
Street, Thittaw Ward, Taunggyi, on 17 September 2007 and taken to Insein
Prison. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on 11 November 2008
under 3 charges: Article 17 (1) of the Unlawful Association Act, Article
13 (1) of the Immigration Act and Article 505 (B) of the Penal Code. He
was transferred to Myingyan prison on 21 November 2008. He was tortured
during interrogation, and was reportedly beaten, burnt with cigarettes and
electrocuted.

In Myingyan Prison, Ko Kyaw Soe suffered from a respiratory disease and
stomach problems. “He was the 144th political prisoner to die in prison in
Burma, since 1988, due to malnutrition, maltreatment and inadequate
medical care. When his family members requested the Myingyan Prison
authorities to buy appropriate medicine for Ko Kyaw Soe, the prison
authorities replied that they had been taking care of him adequately and
carefully. Now, it is obvious that they were not treating him properly,”
Secretary of AAPP, Tate Naing, said.

“The deplorable conditions in Burma’s prisons: the absence and denial of
adequate medical treatment, torture and mistreatment, causes and
exacerbates the health problems of prisoners,  leading to the tragic
deaths of far too many of Burma’s human rights defenders and democracy
activists,” Tate Naing said.

Ko Kyaw Soe has left behind a wife, May Han Ei, and a 7 year-old daughter.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)

For further information, please contact:
Tate Naing, Secretary   +66 (0) 81-287-8751
Bo Kyi, Joint-Secretary +66 (0) 81-962-8713