A prominent anti-government activist recently arrested in Myanmar is at risk of torture, the human rights group Amnesty International said.
Nilar Thein, 36, had been on the run for more than a year after the military government cracked down on activists from the 88 Generation Students movement, the London-based group said on Saturday.
She was arrested on Wednesday in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, as she was going to visit the mother of a detained comrade.
“She is under interrogation in Aung Tha Pyay Detention Center in Yangon ... and is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment,” Amnesty said in an e-mailed statement.
Myanmar officials authorized to speak on security matters could not immediately be reached for comment. But in presentations to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Myanmar’s diplomats have repeatedly denied there are any political prisoners in the country, and say laws barring the use of torture are observed.
Some members of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested soon after organizing anti-government demonstrations in August last year to protest economic hardships and demand democratic reform.
Nevertheless, the demonstrations continued and grew as monks and ordinary civilians joined to call for democratic and economic change.
The army violently suppressed the protests in late September last year. The UN estimated at least 31 people were killed.
Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested and many fled the country or went underground. Nilar Thein’s husband, Kyaw Min Yu — also known as Ko Jimmy — was one of 13 members of the 88 Generation group arrested on Aug. 22 last year.
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