Win Tin released from brief detention

by Mizzima News
Saturday, 12 September 2009 22:31

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Senior leader of the Burmese opposition party – the National League for Democracy – Win Tin, who was briefly detained on Saturday, was released later in the day by the Special Branch of the police.

Sources close to Win Tin said, the NLD central committee member was sent back by the police to the house in Kyaukkone ward of Yankin Township in Rangoon, where he was picked up from earlier in the day.

Rangoon special branch police on Saturday at about 10 a.m (local time) took the influential opposition leader from his friend’s residence, where he currently lives, saying “they needed to asked a few questions” to Aung Tha Pyay interrogation centre.

Win Tin was with his friend Ohn Tun and another friend when the Special Branch Police came into the house and asked him to follow him.

The veteran journalist, Win Tin, who recently got a pace maker fixed for his heart, on September 9, wrote a critical article on the ruling junta’s planned elections, titled “An Election Burma’s People Don’t Need”, on The Washington Post.

Burma’s ruling military regime, in May 2008, conducted a referendum to approve a newly drafted constitution amidst the death of over 140,000 people in the wake of Cyclone Nargis that hit the country’s coastal region of Irrawaddy division.

As part of its seven-step roadmap to democracy, the junta, following the approval of the constitution in a referendum, which critics and opposition called a ‘sham’, are planning to hold general elections in 2010.

In his article, Win Tin have stressed the need for dialogue between the junta and opposition party, and urged the junta to begin the process of national reconciliation by starting with the release of detained NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Win Tin has spent 19 years in prison for his political convictions and was released in November 2008.

Win Tin, who is known to friends and even recognized by some of the junta’s officials as who dares to sacrifice, following his release was left with no place to live as he faces several difficulties in being able to rent a house.

The single man, Win Tin, though he tried renting some houses, since authorities would warn the landlords, no landlord dares to lease their house to him.