Poet Khant Min Htet released

by Nem Davies
Monday, 07 December 2009 20:02

New Delhi (Mizzima) - A layout designer cum a poet, Khant Min Htet, has been released after being detained by Rangoon Division Special Branch of the Police for about days, families said.

Khant Min Htet, layout designer of Rangoon-based Ahlingar Wutyee Journal, was arrested on October 22 and was taken to Aung Thabyay interrogation centre. His poet father and ‘Padauk Pwint Thit’ magazine editor-in-chief Maung Sein Nee said, they took his son back home on November 1.

“He is in good health. They summoned the family members and handed him over to us,” Maung Sein Nee said.

On the same day, at least 15 Cyclone Nargis volunteer relief workers, including freelance reporter Pai Soe Oo a.k.a. Jay Pai and Editor Thant Zin Soe of the Foreign Affairs Journal were released from detention. The authorities called their family members and handed them over at their office.

“Both detainees and their guardians had to sign a bond before being released. An official told us that they forgave these youths for their mistake and wrongdoing, but we have to control them from doing the same thing again,” a parent, who visited the detention centre and brought his son back, said.

Most of them are members of Cyclone Nargis volunteer relief group known as ‘Lin Let Kye’, and they were arrested in October.

According to their family members they were interrogated by authorities on the source of their funds for the relief work and whether they had contacts with opposition groups in exile. But they said that they didn’t know about what transpired during their detention, as to whether they were tortured.

“We did not find any torture mark on his body,” Khant Min Htet’s mother said. She was very happy following his release.

Some of the media houses have not yet taken them back in their earlier posts for fear of pressure from the authorities. But Khant Min Htet has been working at his layout design job in Ahlingar Wutyee journal on his release from detention. Pai Soe Oo a.k.a. Jay Pai also visited his journal office today but it is not yet known whether he has joined his job.

The ‘Amnesty International’ (AI) recently demanded the release of all of them.