News & Articles on Burma-Thursday, 10 February, 2011

News & Articles on Burma
Thursday, 10 February, 2011
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Myint Aung rejects defense minister job; reportedly under arrest
2 die in explosions near Thai-Myanmar friendship bridge
It's the Politics, Stupid
Security beefed up at Shan VP’s home in Shan State North
Myint Aung Dismissed, Placed Under House Arrest
Aung San Suu Kyi honoured by Brighton Festival
Major government overhaul underway
Calls mount for Shan leader’s release
Suu Kyi’s party to take appeal
Wood Shortfall Hits Three Pagodas Pass
Five 8888-day anniversary protesters released
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Myint Aung rejects defense minister job; reportedly under arrest
Thursday, 10 February 2011 19:51 Thomas Maung Shwe

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Lieutenant General Myint Aung, who was on a list to be appointed defense minister on Friday has reportedly declined the cabinet post and was placed under house arrest in Naypidaw on Thursday.

Lieutenant General Myint Aung, once thought to be an heir apparent to Than Shwe, was reportedly under house arrest on Thursday after he refused a ministerial post. Photo : MRTV

Lieutenant General Myint Aung, once thought to be an heir apparent to Than Shwe, was reportedly under house arrest on Thursday after he refused a ministerial post. Photo : MRTV
Unconfirmed reports said Myint Aung, who previously served as the adjutant general, is thought to have refused the ministerial position because he perceived it as a demotion.

Prior to his rejection of the post, the Than Shwe loyalist was thought by many observers to be next in line to replace Burma’s reclusive dictator at the helm of the nation’s armed forces.

The future for Myint Aung, 55, remains unclear but his military career appears to have come to a screeching halt.

Sources said the defense minister position is now expected to go Lieutenant General Ko Ko.

Lieutenant General Min Aung Hlaing is now expected to be named commander in chief of the Armed Forces, with Major General Soe Win taking the vice commander in chief position, sources said.

Soe Win was until very recently leading the Northern Command and was a junior to Myint Aung.

Both Min Aung Hlaing and Soe Win are considered to be from the Maung Aye faction, giving Burma’s No. 2 general a significant boost in power.

Insiders in Naypidaw said that Myint Aung’s apparent rejection is just the latest bump in Than Shwe’s plan to impose a parliamentary façade on the government.

When the newly arrived members of Parliament convened behind closed doors recently to nominate their vice presidential candidates, it was reported that a majority refused to endorse Tin Aung Myint Oo because he is considered too hard line, sources said.

Due to the initial rejection of Tin Aung Myint Oo, Than Shwe is said to have been forced to make an impromptu appearance at the Parliament to instruct the lawmakers to vote for his desired choice.

Maung Aye is said to have reacted strongly to Than Shwe approach, and he was observed storming out of the building. None of the reports could be confirmed by other parties on Thursday evening. http://mizzima.com/news/breaking-and-news-brief/4869-myint-aung-rejects-defense-minister-job-reportedly-under-arrest.html
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2 die in explosions near Thai-Myanmar friendship bridge
Feb 9 08:09 AM US/Eastern
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BANGKOK, Feb. 9 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Two people in Myanmar were killed and another six wounded in explosions near the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge, police said Wednesday.

According to Thai police, two bombs were hidden in front of a coffee shop near the bridge on Myanmar side and detonated around at 5 p.m.

The first bomb injured several people at the coffee shop and the second bomb exploded later as police and soldiers were inspecting the site.

Two civilians died in the second explosion, police said.

After the blasts, Myanmar deployed security forces on its side of the bridge that links to Thailand's northwestern Tak Province.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9L993VO0&show_article=1
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EDITORIAL
It's the Politics, Stupid
Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Burma's outlawed opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), released a statement on Tuesday spelling out its position on sanctions. In the well-written statement, the party argues that the impact of sanctions on the Burmese economy has been greatly overstated, while the real issue—rampant human rights abuses under military rule—has been largely ignored, and must be addressed if sanctions are to be lifted.

While there's no disputing that Burma's economy is in a sorry state, this has far less to do with sanctions than with the junta's economic mismanagement, poor governance, corruption and blatant cronyism, according to the statement.

Long before Western sanctions were imposed on Burma, the country's first military ruler, Gen Ne Win, turned Southeast Asia's most promising economy into one of the world's worst. In 1987, a year before his regime collapsed, Burma was declared a Least Developed Nation by the UN. What if Ne Win had decided to reform the economy and integrate it into the global economy? Most likely, he would not have had to face a nationwide uprising in 1988 and could have remained in power as a benevolent dictator.

Now, we have to ask why Western sanctions were imposed on Ne Win's successors in the first place. The answer, obviously, is its record of human rights violations.

On May 20, 1997, US President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order 13047 banning most new US investment in “economic development of resources in Burma.” To justify the ban, the president cited a “constant and continuing pattern of severe repression” of the democratic opposition by Burma's ruling junta, then known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council.

In June 2003, the Bush Administration passed the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act after the military and its thugs ambushed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters in Depayin, killing dozens.

In July 2008, after the brutal crackdown on monks and activists in September 2007, the US government introduced the Burmese JADE Act, banning imports of jade and gems from Burma and imposing visa bans on regime leaders and their cronies.

Clearly, these sanctions are political tools aimed at censuring the regime’s poor human rights record, and not at hobbling Burma's economy.

Rather than focusing on the economic impact of the sanctions, perhaps we should be asking if they have had any positive effect on its politics. In other words, have sanctions been an effective tool to counter the repressive regime in Burma? The NLD statement doesn't answer this question. But what we have seen is the generals and their cronies getting richer over the past decade, thanks to the eagerness of Burma’s neighbors to extract its natural resources and invest in infrastructure with little or no benefit for Burmese people. Burma remains one of the poorest nations in the world. The regime spends the lion's share of its budget on the military, while setting aside only tiny amounts for education and health care.

According to the NLD statement, “If we look at Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), foreign capital went mainly into the extraction of natural resources. Whereas FDI for 2008-09 totaled 925 million dollars, permitted foreign investment in 2009-2010 increased to 15,839 million dollars, of which 62 percent was in the oil and natural gas sectors.” So where has all this gas money gone?

But even as the NLD statement finds fault with foreign investment that only enriches the generals and their partners, it keeps the door open for more ethical investment aimed at benefiting Burma's people and protecting its natural environment.

“The NLD considers that in the meantime the economic hardships of the people would be ameliorated if businesses that have already invested, or are thinking of investing, in Burma were to observe guidelines aimed at conserving the ecological environment, protecting the rights of workers and promoting civil society,” says the statement.

This was an echo of a statement made by NLD leader Suu Kyi in her prerecorded message to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of last month. Speaking to a gathering of world leaders, businessmen, politicians, academics and civil society representatives, she said, “I would like to request those who have invested or who are thinking of investing in Burma to put a premium on respect for the law, on environmental and social factors, on the rights of workers, on job creation and on the promotion of technological skills.”

She also reminded them: “I believe that as necessary steps towards integration within the global community Burma must achieve national reconciliation, political stability, and economic growth grounded in human resources development.”

Burma cannot live with sanctions forever. http://www.irrawaddy.org./opinion_story.php?art_id=20716
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Security beefed up at Shan VP’s home in Shan State North
Wednesday, 09 February 2011 16:49 S.H.A.N.

Local authorities in Lashio, Shan State North, have begun to construct concrete walls and barbed wire fences around the house of Dr Sai Mawk Kham who became Vice Preident #2 of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (RUM), the new name for Burma, on Saturday 5 February, according to sources.

“I saw piles of bricks in front of his house in Longlaw (Quarter #7),” said a local source.

Sai Mawk Kham, 61, has now moved into his new residence in Naypyitaw. One source swore he found Sai Mawk Kham already moving in on 4 February, after he was nominated as one of the three presidential candidates.

Sai Mawk Kham won 140 votes against his rival Dr Aye Maung on 4 February. But he received only 75 votes the next day.

“I think he’s going to become the carrot and Tin Aung Myint Oo (who became Vice President #2) the stick of Thein Sein (President),” predicted one of his former associates.

According to a Shan monk from Lashio, Sai Mawk Kham, after he had made up his mind to run a seat in the National Assembly under the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) ticket, made his announcement to the Shan clergy. “For my family’s sake, I’m going to join the USDP, knowing fully well that my friends will not like it,” he reportedly said. “But if I’m to be blessed with an important position, I will do my best to promote the Shan literary and cultural heritage.”

“Now, it’s time we wait and see whether he will keep his promise or if it’s just hot air,” commented the clerical source.

Dr Sai Mawk Kham, a native of Muse on the Sino-Burma border, has a wife, Nang Shwe Hmone, two daughters and one son. Until lately, he was working in a clinic “Yuli Kha” in Lashio. He was also the chairman of the local Shan literary and cultural society. http://www.shanland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3458:security-beefed-up-at-shan-vps-home-in-shan-state-north&catid=85:politics&Itemid=266
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Myint Aung Dismissed, Placed Under House Arrest
By WAI MOE Thursday, February 10, 2011

Lt-Gen Myint Aung, Burma's former adjutant general, who was appointed defense minister by junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe last week, has been placed under house arrest in Naypyidaw after formally declining the ministerial position, according to sources in the Burmese capital.

“Thura” Myint Aung was thought to be in line for the position as commander-in-chief of the armed forces—a title held currently by Than Shwe—but the military junta strongman has not stepped down.

Myint Aung
“He reportedly said that he did not want to be the defense minister under the possible new Commander-in-Chief Lt-Gen Min Aung Hlaing,” a military source said.

Myint Aung graduated from the elite Defense Services Academy (DSA) Intake 18 while Min Aung Hlaing was from DSA Intake 19; Myint Aung therefore being one year senior to Min Aung Hlaing.

Sources in Naypyidaw concur that Myint Aung was popular and respected among his peers and subordinates while Min Aung Hlaing is generally seen as “arrogant.”

Lt-Gen Ko Ko will now take over as head of the Defense Ministry, it was announced at Parliament on Wednesday.

After turning down the cabinet position last week, Myint Aung was dismissed from his role as lieutenant-general then placed under house arrest and separated from his family, a source said, adding that houses in Rangoon and Naypyidaw and a vehicle that had been provided for him have been retaken.

A businessman close to Myint Aung's family said that his family members were back home in Rangoon earlier this week, but that Myint Aung did not appear.

Along with more than one dozen senior military officials, such as Gen Shwe Mann, Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, Lt-Gen Tin Aye and Lt-Gen Ko Ko, 55-year-old Myint Aung was removed from his military position in late August.

However, Myint Aung, Ko Ko and some others continued to serve in military uniform while Shwe Mann, Tin Aung Myint Oo and Tin Aye shed their uniforms to take part in November's general elections.

At the time, rumors from Naypyidaw suggested that Than Shwe favored Myint Aung and Ko Ko to succeed him and and his deputy, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, respectively.

Myint Aung’s last public appearance was on Nov 7 when MRTV evening news showed him and his wife voting at a polling station in Naypyidaw alongside other generals and their wives.

Under the autocratic rule of Than Shwe, the rise and fall of many military generals has been swift and at times seemingly arbitrary. http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=20725
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BBC
Aung San Suu Kyi honoured by Brighton Festival
10 February 2011 Last updated at 11:11 GMT

Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been named as the guest director of the 2011 Brighton Festival.

Organisers said this year's festival would celebrate and champion Ms Suu Kyi's cause and world vision.

Ms Suu Kyi said it was wonderful to know there was so much support for the effort to bring democracy to Burma.

Events include a discussion with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange called Article 19, which will look at Freedom of Information and the right to know.

'Use your liberty'

Ms Suu Kyi will not be attending the event, but in a statement she said: "It is especially pleasing for me to see, albeit remotely, Brighton Festival taking shape this year, and to think that so many people will come together in May to celebrate great art and experience the inner peace it brings.

"It is wonderful too to know that there is such support for the effort to bring democracy and freedom to Burma, for which the Burmese people have been diligently working for so long."

She urged people involved in the festival to "continue to use your liberty to promote ours" - a plea which arts organisers said had been taken to the heart of the event.

The Burmese military authorities released the Nobel Peace Prize winner from house arrest on 13 November last year.

She had been detained for 15 of the previous 21 years.

Thousands of people gathered outside the home of 65-year-old Ms Suu Kyi to greet her and hear her speak.

Since her release, she has called for a peaceful revolution in Burma and said she hoped for a non-violent end to military rule.
Victorian police cells

Her brother-in-law Adrian Phillips said: "Aung San Suu Kyi has often said how important music and the arts have been to her throughout her life.

"Brighton Festival is a wonderful opportunity to bring her struggle to a wider public, at a time when it is so important for the world to keep remembering what remains to be done in Burma."
Images from New World Order performance (left) and an installation to be shown in the Old Municipal Market (right) This year's festival will champion Ms Suu Kyi's cause and explore themes of freedom and voice

Festival chief executive Andrew Comben said he hoped the programme reflected some of Ms Suu Kyi's extraordinary spirit.

He said an incredible collection of artists had come together to celebrate an iconic woman who inspired so many.

The Asian Dub Foundation will open this year's festival with a live performance inspired by the struggle in Burma.

One performance, called The New World Order, is offering the audience a "visceral experience of imprisonment" and will take people on a journey through Victorian police cells.

And Beethoven's opera, Fidelio, chosen for "startlingly contemporary" themes of wrongful incarceration, abuse of power and personal sacrifice, will be performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Brighton Festival Chorus.

The full festival programme is due to be launched later this month.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-12410512
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Major government overhaul underway
By AHUNT PHONE MYAT
Published: 9 February 2011

Two new ministries have been added to the Burmese government as part of a major overhaul of the country’s administrative system that places key military figures at the top of the pile.

Following yesterday’s parliamentary session the Ministry of the President’s Office and the Ministry of Industrial Development became the latest additions to Burma’s political landscape.

The remaining 32 have been revamped and most will come under new directorship. But the heads of four of the most prominent departments – the defence ministry, home affairs ministry, foreign affairs ministry and border affairs ministry – will be nominated solely by the commander-in-chief, Than Shwe, and then appointed by President Thein Sein.

The Ministry of Border Affairs has already been placed under the leadership of Major-General Hla Min, a senior figure in the Burmese army and former commander of the Southern Regional Military Command. The defence ministry will be headed by Lieutenant-General Ko Ko, former Chief of Bureau of Special Operations-3.

Burma’s border regions have for decades hosted conflicts between the Burmese army and armed ethnic groups that have left millions displaced. Hla Min will likely be kept busy dealing with the escalating tensions between the Burmese army and groups who refused the junta’s demands to transform into Border Guard Forces.

Retaining his position as Minister for Religious Affairs is Thura Myint Maung, the man who infamously announced on government radio in September 2007 that “action would be taken” against demonstrating monks unless they withdrew from the protests. Several were subsequently gunned down by the army.

The outcome of today’s parliamentary session will do little to appease critics of the November 2010 elections who claimed the polls were merely window-dressing, and that military rule would continue in Burma under the guise of a civilian government.

Close allies of the ruling junta make up the remaining new ministers: the country’s former police chief, Khin Yi, once a military man, has become home minister while Wunna Maung Lwin, Burma’s former ambassador to the UN, is head of foreign affairs.

Eight of the 14 people appointed as chief ministers of regional legislatures also come fresh from the military, further extending the army’s reach into the volatile border regions.

Overseeing the reshuffle is Burma’s new president, Thein Sein, a man whose military career spanned half a century before he retired last year. The former prime minister is known to be close to junta strongman Than Shwe, who in 2004 appointed him head of the National Convention which drafted the constitution that came into force with November’s election, and appeared designed to keep the generals in power.

Supporting the military figures now holding top positions in government ministries are the pro-junta MPs and army officials that dominate the new parliament, which sat for the first time last week. Respresentatives of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which was headed by Thein Sein, won 80 percent of seats, while a quarter of the total seats had been reserved for the military prior to voting.

Additional reporting by Francis Wade http://www.dvb.no/news/major-government-overhaul-underway/14179
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Calls mount for Shan leader’s release
By NANG KHAM KAEW
Published: 10 February 2011

Protests yesterday marked the sixth anniversary of the arrest of imprisoned Shan political leader Khun Htun Oo, whose health is reportedly deteriorating.

Burmese and Shan pro-democracy activists were yesterday outside the UN office in Tokyo, Japan, calling for the 68-year-old’s release. Echoing them were members of his now-defunct Shan National League for Democracy (SNDP) party who said their leader’s freedom must be realised before the junta can convince the world that it is transitioning to civilian rule.

“We cannot trust the junta claims that the country is marching towards democracy,” said Mai Kyaw Oo, a representative for the National Democratic Force (NDF) in Japan, who hails from Shan state.

He added the recent appointment of Shan politician Sai Mouk Kham to vice president was little more than window dressing, given the number of ethnic representatives that remain behind bars.

Following Khun Htun Oo’s arrest in 2005 he was sentenced to 93 years in jail, and is currently interned in the remote northern Putao prison close to Burma’s border with China. Burmese authorities had accused the politician, whose party came second in the 1990 elections, of plotting a coup against the ruling generals.

He claimed however that he was merely organising what he billed an ‘advisory council’ to guide other Shan parties in the country’s National Convention. State media at the time said however that the group was “launching movements to disintegrate national unity and solidarity”.

The SNLD’s general secretary, Sai Nyunt Lwin, was also arrested and handed an 85-year sentence, while 74-year-old Hso Ten, chairman of the Shan State Peace Council who was also involved in the alleged plot, was given 106 years.

Khun Htun Oo is believed to be suffering from diabetes and heart disease, conditions that have been exacerbated by his lack of access to adequate medicine. His cell in Putao, where weather conditions can be harsh, is cramped, making exercise difficult.
http://www.dvb.no/news/calls-mount-for-shan-leader%E2%80%99s-release/14217
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Suu Kyi’s party to take appeal to UN
By KHIN HNIN HTET
Published: 9 February 2011

The UN will be the next stop on the quest to legally reinstate Burma’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) as a political party, following the recent rejection of an appeal against its dissolution.

The party, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, is preparing to take their case to the UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC), spokesperson Nyan Win said. He claims the disbanding of the party last year following its refusal to compete in elections was a violation of their rights; moreover, that the Supreme Court’s rejection of their appeal on 28 January contradicted a number of articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

“Every citizen has the right to take part in the country’s governance, either directly in person or acting as a representative. Those rights of ours were violated,” he told DVB.

The main points in the appeal, he said, were the violation of freedom of expression epitomised by the dissolution, and the lack of law and order in Burma, which has been under military rule since 1962. The UNHRC was a last resort for the party because of the “[lack of] chances with legal procedure in Burma”.

A meeting held on Monday between Suu Kyi and the party’s legal wing concluded that the case would be filed within two weeks, having first gathered momentum in early October last year.

Since then it has been dismissed by three different courts in Burma, with the latest appeal being brushed aside by the Supreme Court in “a matter of minutes”, NLD lawyer Kyaw Hoe said last week.

The independence of Burma’s judicial system has been repeatedly questioned by observers, with court verdicts in the military-ruled country rarely favouring the opposition.

“It is politically very important that a decision is made as to whether we or the government is right about these legal facts,” Nyan Win said. As such, he added, the party would be making a strong case for its reinstatement.

“If the Human Rights Council decides that our stand is right and that the government’s procedures were wrong, then it will be politically beneficial to us.”

Controversy has dogged the UNHRC since its inception in 2006 – critics claim it is dominated by countries such as China, Russia and Islamic states, who prioritise each others’ interests, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon has in the past criticised what he calls a politicisation of decisions made in the 47-member Council.
http://www.dvb.no/news/suu-kyi%E2%80%99s-party-to-take-appeal-to-un/14167
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Wood Shortfall Hits Three Pagodas Pass
By LAWI WENG Thursday, February 10, 2011

More than 100 furniture factories and retailers in Three Pagodas Pass have had to suspend their operations due to a chronic shortage of wood since the Karen National Union (KNU) prohibited logging in the area.

Local resident Thu Rain told The Irrawaddy that of 138 furniture factories, workshops and retailers in the town, only 10 are currently open on a daily basis.

The rebel KNU, a 4,000-strong ethnic army that has fought the Burmese government almost constantly for more than 60 years, granted in 2010 logging concessions to cut about 1,000 tons of ironwood to several Burmese businesses, including Htoo Trading Company, which is owned by Tay Za, a Burmese business tycoon whose name has become synonymous with the term “business crony” and is top of a blacklist of persons facing sanctions by Western nations.

A logging truck heads from Three Pagodas Pass to Thailand in 2010. (PHOTO: The Irrawaddy)
However, last month the KNU did a U-turn on the policy, reportedly reneged on their contracts, and issued a total ban on logging in the areas under their control in Karen State.

The ban was enacted after clashes broke out between the group's armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army, and Burmese government forces in southern Karen State near Myawaddy, a region known as Brigade 6 to the Karen rebels.

Nai Tun, a timber merchant in Three Pagodas Pass, said, “I don't possess a single log at the moment.

“I have tons of timber remaining in the jungle—trees that I cut down last year,” he said. “But now I cannot get into that area.”

The Forestry Office in Three Pagodas Pass last year recorded an annual turnover of some 30,000 tons of hardwood, including teak and ironwood, which was the main source of business in the town, keeping almost every furniture factory in the town supplied with timber all year round.

But all varieties of wood have run out despite a high demand, the sources said.

“In normal conditions, the factories and workshops in Three Pagodas use a total of about 50 tons of wood a day,” said Thu Rain.

As a result of the wood shortage, the price of hardwood has gone up.

One ton of ironwood is currently wholesaling for 24,000 baht (US $800), while it cost only 9,000 baht last March. One ton of softwood is currently selling at 11,000 baht, up from 4,500 baht last year.

The hardwood shortage has prompted several local rubber plantation owners to fell their trees to sell to the furniture factories, sources report.

On Feb. 8, the Burmese military authorities in Three Pagodas Pass called a meeting with representatives from the Forest Ministry, the Furniture Committee and the Burmese army, at which the government authorities issued a declaration that no small hardwood trees can be cut down in or around Three Pagodas Pass, and that violators will be punished.

“The authorities announced that too late,” said Thu Rain. “It is too hot now and there are no big trees. If they cut down small trees, there will be a drought.”

Meanwhile, across the border in Thailand, prices have also gone up. “One ton of ironwood in Sangkhalaburi is now about 30,000 baht,” said resident Nai Rubby who built a new house last week in the town.

“It is not easy to find wood now,” he said. “If you have money, you can buy gold any time you like. But you cannot buy hardwood.”
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20728
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Five 8888-day anniversary protesters released
Thursday, 10 February 2011 20:12 Mizzima News

(Mizzima) - Five young people who were imprisoned for staging a protest against rising commodity prices on the anniversary of the 8888 uprising were released on Monday, February 7, according to the Rakhine branch of the National League for Democracy (NLD) and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

The five are Ni Ni May Myint, Maung Maung Thet, Chit Maung Maung, Moe Naing Soe and Than Lwin. They staged a protest directed at the military junta on August 8, 2008, the anniversary of the 8888 uprising.

They were each sentenced to two and half years imprisonment.

‘All five of them were released on the same day. They have served their full term’, said the Rakhine State branch youth wing secretary, Thein Hlaing.

They were charged under section 143 (unlawful assembly) and section 505(b) (causing disaffection to the State) of the Penal Code.

Thein Hlaing told Mizzima that they were first held in Thandwe (Sandoway) Prison, but they were later transferred to Buthidaung Prison after they held a ‘U Ottama Day’ ceremony inside the prison.

There were a total 18 political prisoners in Buthidaung Prison and now that number has fell to 13.

There are a total of 2,189 political prisoners still behind bars across the country, the Thai-based AAPP said.

After her release from house arrest, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said that she would prioritize her work to achieve the release of all political prisoners.

The NLD has a social outreach program which involves volunteers who help prisoners and their familiy members in a one-on-one situation.

The ruling junta denies the existence of political prisoners in Burma, claiming they are guilty of violating the criminal penal code. International governments and the UN have regularly called for the release of all political prisoners, but the junta ignores the pleas.
http://mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4870-five-8888-day-anniversary-protesters-released.html

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