(RSF/IFEX) – RSF and the Burma Media Association (BMA) have welcomed the release of Burmese journalist and poet Kyi Tin Oo after more than 10 years in jail, but expressed concern about his state of health and that of those still in prison. Following his 26 March 2004 release, the 60-year-old journalist said, “I need […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF and the Burma Media Association (BMA) have welcomed the release of Burmese journalist and poet Kyi Tin Oo after more than 10 years in jail, but expressed concern about his state of health and that of those still in prison.
Following his 26 March 2004 release, the 60-year-old journalist said, “I need to rest at home for a while because my health is still fragile. I want to get myself into better physical condition so I can visit my son in prison. We haven’t seen one another for six years,” he told reporters for the “Democratic Voice of Burma” newspaper.
Kyi Tin Oo suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. He had an operation on his legs a few months ago, but they have not healed properly because of his diabetes and the poor conditions in which he was imprisoned.
RSF and the BMA have both deplored the fact that, not content with throwing political opponents in prison for years, the Burmese authorities then leave them to die slowly in appalling prison conditions.
“I should be happy, but I am sad,” Kyi Tin Oo said as he left prison. “I have seen the suffering of all these people with my own eyes and I would like to see all political prisoners amnestied.”
RSF and the BMA support his appeal and call on the Burmese authorities to include a general amnesty for political prisoners in their “road map to democracy”.
The journalist and poet was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 1994. He was accused of writing political articles in the monthly “Moe Wai” (closed for financial reasons in 1996) and “Tha-bin” magazine, which was banned in 1988. According to one journalist who is now living in exile in Thailand, “Kyi Tin Oo was known in journalistic circles for his columns on everyday life in Burma. He wrote lyrical articles full of compassion for those who suffer.”
Kyi Tin Oo is married to Daw Than Yi, a writer and librarian. They have four children. One of his sons, Aung Kyaw Hein, is serving a 14-year sentence for membership in a banned student movement. The father and son were held in the same jail for some time, but were separated six years ago. Kyi Tin Oo was previously jailed for three years in the 1960s, then for seven years between 1978 and 1985 and for a few months following the 1988 coup.
