MIN KO NAING IS SUFFERING IN PRISON

His sister Kyi Kyi Nyunt, who visited the prominent student leader on Thursday, said Min Ko Naing is in solitary confinement in the Keng Tung prison. He is suffering from an eye problem and his condition is deteriorating. He needs the attention of an eye specialist."We have requested the prison authorities to allow him a check-up and medical attention by an eye specialist," Kyi Kyi Nyunt told Mizzima over telephone, adding that the student leader has been suffering from the eye ailment since his detention in Rangoon's Insein prison. Kyi Kyi Nyunt said that Min Ko Naing is kept in a separate cell all by himself and though the prison situation seems normal, the severe weather in Keng Tung is having an adverse affect on his health."It is like keeping him in a refrigerator," said Kyi Kyi Nyunt, adding that she had requested the prison authorities to allow him to walk around and be in the sun occasionally because he seems to be having difficulty in moving his hands and feet due to the severe cold.Prominent student leaders Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, who were arrested in mid-August 2007, after leading a peaceful march in Rangoon for a roll back of fuel prices which had pushed up costs of essential commodities, were shifted to Keng Tung prison last month after being handed lengthy prison terms of 65 years.But after spending about two nights in Keng Tung prison, Ko Ko Gyi was transferred to Mai Sat prison in Shan State, she added.Burma's military rulers over the past few months have handed down lengthy prison terms to political activists and begun transferring them to far-flung prisons across the country, making it all the more difficult for family members to visit them."The prison authorities said, we could meet him [Min Ko Naing] once in two weeks. But I don't think we can go that often because it is too far away. We might only be able to visit him once in a few months," said Kyi Kyi Nyunt, who returned to Rangoon on Tuesday evening from Keng Tung. In much the same way, other prominent political activists including comedian Zargarnar and blogger Nay Phone Latt were all transferred to remote prisons across Burma. Zargarnar has been transferred to a prison in the northern most city of Myitkyina of Kachin state, while popular rapper Zeya Thaw was moved to a prison in Burma's southern most town of Kawthawng.

UN Urged to Expand Ability on Preventing Atrocities

The United Nations must put more effort into prevention of genocide through diplomacy and must also be prepared to defend civilians from mass killings when necessary, an anti-genocide group advised Tuesday.
The Genocide Prevention Project is focusing on the UN because it believes a multilateral approach is the best way to tackle the problem, said Jill Savitt, the project's director.
"If it doesn't address these situations, we have to take a look at what the UN is doing," she said. "This is the reason for its existence, these crimes."
The project recommends that the UN Secretariat and Security Council work more closely with the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, getting information on early warning signs to avoid a descent into mass killing.
It also recommends that member states appoint high-level officials to focus on genocide issues, and calls on the UN to again consider a permanent civilian protection force.
On the group's "red alert" watch list of the countries of most concern for genocide are Sudan, Burma, Somalia, Iraq, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
The report comes as a task force headed by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Defense Secretary Bill Cohen, who both served in the Clinton administration, recommended that President-elect Barack Obama make preventing genocide a priority and called for Congress to provide $250 million a year to deter such atrocities around the world.
Tuesday is the 60th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the 20th anniversary of the US ratification of the treaty.
The Genocide Prevention Project has grown from Dream for Darfur, a campaign that worked with actress Mia Farrow to draw attention to victims of genocide during the Beijing Olympics.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in the Darfur region of Sudan. The US has called the killings genocide.