NLD ACTIVISTS JAILED FOR LONG AND EU-ASIA SHOULD SEEK TO FREE BURMA

“Daw Win Mya Mya and U Kan Tun received 12 years, and U Than Lwin who was elected in the 1990 election, received eight years in prison,” he said. Min Thu from Mogok Township, received 13 years; Win Shwe from Kyaukpadaung Township received 11 years; and Tin Ko Ko from Meiktila Township received two years. According to a Burmese human rights group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the NLD members were charged with Act 505 (B) for meeting with American diplomats and 153 (A) for campaigning for political and human rights and the reopening of NLD offices in the country. Win Mya Mya is a well-known pro-democracy activist in Mandalay, Burma’s second largest city. Since 1988, she provided food and other material to political prisoners in Mandalay Prison. In return, authorities harassed her family business and arrested her several times during 20 years as a political activist.She was injured and arrested when Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters were brutally ambushed by thugs backed by the junta in Depayin, Sagaging Division in northern Burma in late May, 2003. She has been in detention since the September 2007 demonstrations. Than Lwin, who was a successful candidate for Madaya Township in 1990, is vice-chairman of the NLD's Mandalay Division. He was arrested during the 2007 demonstrations. He was also assaulted when he returned home from praying for the release from house arrest of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a Buddhist temple in the township in June 2007. NLD spokesman Nyan Win said, “They didn’t commit any crimes. So the jail term for them is unjust and unfair.”

EU-Asia summit should seek release of Myanmar dissidents: MEPs

STRASBOURG (AFP) – The European Parliament on Thursday called on Asian and European leaders meeting in Beijing this week to launch a joint appeal to the Myanmar junta for the release of all political prisoners there.
In a non-binding resolution, adopted unanimously by the 68 euro deputies still present at the end of a four-day sitting, the parliament denounced "the arbitrary charges behind the arrests of many dissidents and the harsh conditions of detention of political prisoners including widespread use of torture and hard labour."
The European MPs, meeting in Strasbourg, also deplored "the fact that the number of political prisoners has increased from 1,300 to 2,000 in the aftermath of the Saffron Revolution of September 2007."
The MEPs in particular condemned the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace laureate who has been for the most part under house arrest since her victory at the last democratic elections in 1990, calling for her immediate release.
The European Parliament urged the Asian and European leaders, meeting in an ASEM summit in Beijing Friday and Saturday, "to jointly appeal to the Myanmar military authorities to release all political prisoners."
Forty-three heads of state and government from the 27 EU nations, the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and six other Asian countries, including economic heavy hitters China, India and Japan, will gather in the Chinese capital.