(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 16 October 2000 RSF press release: U Soe Thein, journalist and MP jailed since May 1996, is close to death Reporters Sans Frontières and Daniel Cohn-Bendit denounce the criminal attitude of the Burmese authorities Soe Thein, a journalist and MP for the National League for Democracy (NLD, an opposition […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 16 October 2000 RSF press release:
U Soe Thein, journalist and MP jailed since May 1996, is close to death
Reporters Sans Frontières and Daniel Cohn-Bendit denounce the criminal attitude of the Burmese authorities
Soe Thein, a journalist and MP for the National League for Democracy (NLD, an opposition party) was admitted, during the third week of September, to the intensive care service of the general hospital of Rangoon. The authorities sent him to hospital only after he had had a heart attack in his cell. According to his family, he is close to death. The stomach disease from which he suffers is also worse. In July 1997, Soe Thein had a first heart attack. The authorities refused to treat him. Since the confiscation of the elections in May 1990 by the army, three journalists have died in detention. At least twelve are currently jailed in Burma.
Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF – Reporters Without Borders) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who is taking part in a sponsorship campaign for the Burmese MP, expressed their deep concern regarding the health of Soe Thein.
The press freedom watchdog and the European MP ask the Burmese authorities to immediately release the journalist and to provide him with the necessary treatment. His bad health is the result of the harsh detention conditions of political prisoners in Burma, and the criminal attitude of the authorities, which refuse to treat sick prisoners properly.
55 years old, Soe Thein has been detained in the Insein jail since May 1996. The authorities accused him of writing texts about “peaceful resistance” for the NLD. He was jailed by virtue of Article 10 of the State Protection Law, which provides for indefinite periods of detention without trial. Soe Thein was editor of the official newspaper Botahtaung before being dismissed in 1988 because of his support for the democratic movement. He also published a magazine, Ah-Twe-Ah-Myin (The Thought), until November 1990, when he was arrested a first time.
Since the confiscation of the democratic elections in May 1990, three journalists, Ne Win, Ba Thaw and Saw Win, have died in Burmese jails. At least twelve journalists are currently jailed in Burma. San San Nweh, awarded the RSF – Fondation de France Prize, has never received the medical attention she requires since her arrest in August 1994. She suffers from high blood pressure which could cause a heart attack at any stage, and kidney infection.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit has sponsored Soe Thein since September 1999 with “MPs for Burma”, an association that asks MPs from democratic countries to support Burmese MPs elected in May 1990 and from whom the military junta confiscated the victory. On 1 March 2000, 51 MPs from NLD were still detained. Finally, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the NLD, was recently placed under house arrest in Rangoon.
