Burma: A Prison State

http://www.i-times.org/interesting_times/2008/11/burma-a-prison.html

The latest string of imprisonments in Burma has confirmed once more that the ruthless military dictatorship has gone way past the police state to enter the prison state.

A military court has sentenced nine pro-democracy activists to 65 years in prison each, bringing the total for the week to 70 people who have summarily been put in the country's already overcrowded prisons.

On Friday, journalist Ein Khaing Oo was sentenced to a two-year term for covering the protests last June against the government's dismal response to the humanitarian catastrophe triggered by a devastating cyclone.



The nine sentenced activists belong to the 88 Generation Student movement, named after the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations that were crushed by a bloody campaign of repression by the military junta.

Also in the past week 14 other members of the Generation 88 Students group were sentenced to prison terms of 65 years each, and a labor activist, Su Su Nway, was sentenced to 12 1/2 years. Ten people allied with Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy got jail terms of eight to 24 years.
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Many of the activists were involved in protests in September 2007 that led to huge pro-democracy demonstrations that the army put down by force. According to estimates from the United Nations, at least 31 people were killed and thousands of demonstrators were detained. Many fled the country or went underground.

Amnesty International and other international human rights groups say the junta holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 in June 2007, before the pro-democracy demonstrations.

On Monday, blogger Nay Phone Latt was sentenced to 20 and a half years in prison after being found in possession of a banned video and poet Saw Wai to two years for writing a satire of the junta.

Perhaps the only force that can rattle the members of the ruling junta in their ivory towers would be a stern warning from their major enablers, the Chinese government. What are they waiting for?

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