UN urged to review cases of detained Shan leaders

Tuesday, 10 August 2010 12:03 Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Supporters of seven detained Shan leaders are taking advantage of the regional visit of a special UN envoy to call on the world body to take up the cause of those detained.

Shan State Joint Action Committee (SSJAC) secretary Sai Lake said United Nations special envoy on human rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, should present to the UN the cases of seven detained Shan political prisoners.

The UN envoy, currently in Thailand, was urged to review the cases of the detained founders of the SSJAC, which was spawned from the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) and the armed ceasefire group Shan State Army-North in 1996.

Sai Lake said, “We want the junta to review the cases fairly under the pressure of the UN. Unless the victims are guilty, they (the junta) must free the detained leaders immediately.”

Quintana has been meeting with Burmese pro-democracy activists in Thailand since August 6 in order to collect information to submit to the UN General Assembly in November.

Nine Shan leaders were arrested for high treason in February 2005 after forming the SSJAC. One was freed for serving as a witness for the prosecution, while the rest were sentenced from 70 to more than 100 years in prison. One of the eight detained Shan leaders has since died in custody.

General Say Htin, 74, patron of the Shan State Army-North and currently serving a 106-year term in Sittwe prison, is in urgent need of medical treatment for an eye affliction.

“We demand not only appropriate medical treatment for him, but also his freedom,” Say Htin’s daughter Nan Kham Paung said.

The Shan State Army-North, based in Hsipaw and Lashio, maintains more than 4,000 troops. It signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta in 1989.

One of the detained Shan leaders, Myint Than, died of a heart attack in Thandwe Prison.

Khun Tun Oo, Sai Nyunt Lwin, Than Hla Aung, General Say Htin, Sai Myo Win Tun, Tun Nyo and Nyi Nyi Moe continue to be detained in Putao Prison, Kalay Prison, Kyaukphyu Prison, Sittwe Prison, Myinchan Prison, Butheetaung Prison and Pakkoku Prison, respectively.