Myanmar's military junta released five high-profile dissidents yesterday that it arrested in September at a time of intensifying international pressure on the ruling generals to take concrete steps on the road to democracy.
Their release by the military rulers, who also freed 40 political detainees last week as part of a mass prisoner release to mark the 59th anniversary of independence from British rule, was sudden and unexpected.
"We were all sent back home at about 1:30am this morning," said Min Ko Naing, a leader of a pro-democracy student uprising in 1988.
PHOTO: EPA
He confirmed that he and his colleagues were in good health.
Asked why he thought they had been released, he said: "As we all know, it is mounting pressure at the UNSC," referring to US efforts to have the UN Security Council put pressure on the generals.
Anti-junta pressure groups agreed the release was timed to deflect attention from efforts by the US to get the Security Council to press Myanmar this week into easing repression and beginning a promised transition to democracy.
"This looks like nothing but a cynical ploy to stop the UN Security Council from taking action," said Aung Din, policy director of the Washington-based US Campaign for Burma.
The US on Tuesday introduced a draft resolution to the Security Council urging Myanmar's rulers to initiate democratic reforms, release all political prisoners and stop using rape as a weapon of war.
The other freed activists are Ko Ko Gyi, Ko Htay Kywe, Ko Pyone Cho and Ko Min Zeya, all of whom played prominent roles in the nationwide 1988 protests in which several thousand people were killed after the army moved in to quell the dissent.
Since 1988, each has spent between nine and 15 years behind bars. Within the country, they are viewed as the most prominent anti-junta figures after opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who is under house arrest.
"Ko Htay Kywe and I were kept at the same place but in different buildings. We came to know that we were there together only after our release," Naing said.
"The rest were kept somewhere else. But we all were treated well," he said.
"We are determined to keep on working for the emergence of national reconciliation and democracy in our country through dialogue. We will continue all our campaigns," he said.
The present junta suffered a landslide election defeat to Suu Kyi's National League Democracy in 1990, but ignored the result.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS