(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 24 April 2001 joint RSF – Amnesty International (French Section) press release: San San Nweh allowed to visit her family for three hours in Rangoon Amnesty International French Section and RSF demonstrate on 25 April, at 3 p.m., in front of Burmese embassy to demand her release Jailed since […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 24 April 2001 joint RSF – Amnesty International (French Section) press release:
San San Nweh allowed to visit her family for three hours in Rangoon
Amnesty International French Section and RSF demonstrate on 25 April, at 3 p.m., in front of Burmese embassy to demand her release
Jailed since August 1994, San San Nweh, journalist, writer and Burmese political militant, has been allowed for the first time to go to her home in Yankin, a suburb of Rangoon. According to information collected by RSF, the winner of the 1999 Reporters sans frontières – Fondation de France prize left the women’s wing of Insein prison (Rangoon) on the morning of 8 April, escorted by ten members of the military intelligence service (MIS). She was able to converse with her family, notably her six children, for more than three hours under control of MIS agents. Members of her family were able to note that her health had improved slightly.
San San Nweh was arrested on 5 August 1994 and sentenced in October of the same year to ten years in jail for “producing and sending anti-government reports” notably to foreign journalists, and trying “to foment trouble”. During her seven years of detention, the journalist has suffered from several diseases: high blood pressure, kidney infection and thrombocytopenia (an abnormal number of platelets in the blood). She shares her cell with three others personalities of the National League for Democracy (LND). Prisoners sleep on bamboo mats on the ground. The toilet a mud bowl in the corner of the room is cleared once a day only. From 6 a.m., the women are forced to sit cross-legged on the ground with their heads bowed. Speaking is forbidden and disobedience is punished.
The French section of Amnesty International (notably the 387 Provins group) and Reporters Sans Frontières will demonstrate on Wednesday 25 April 2001, at 3 p.m., in front of the Burmese Embassy in France (60, rue de Courcelles, 75008 Paris). Demonstrators will give the services of the embassy keys collected by Amnesty International to symbolise the liberation of San San Nweh. Hundreds of petitions will also be given to embassy officials on this occasion.
According to Reporters sans frontières (www.rsf.org), Burma is the Asian country where the largest number of journalists are in jail. In its latest report, RSF writes “the authorities’ attitude towards prisoners of conscience is criminal, depriving them of the medical care they need. In 2000, the health of most of them, in particular Soe Thein, Sein Hla Oo, Win Tin and San San Nweh, worsened, without the prison authorities taking any steps to secure proper treatment for them”.
Amnesty International (www.amnesty.asso.fr) has just published an original and detailed list of 458 prisoners of conscience and 1,850 political prisoners who are currently jailed in Burma. A report entitled “Institutionalised Torture in Myanmar” is also available from the Amnesty International French section.
The petition for San San Nweh is available at: www.rsf.org
