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Honorary Member U Sein Hla Oo of Burma (Myanmar) Released!
August 02, 2005
According to the Associated Press, he was one of over 240 political prisoners who were unconditionally released on July 6, under special amnesty.
Story Continued...
Sein Hla Oo, 68, is a short story writer, a former journalist and editor of a Botahtaung newspaper, and a film critic under the pen name Maung Ngwe Oo. He was also Member of Parliament-elect and a Central Executive Committee Member of the National League of Democracy (NLD). Oo was arrested in 1990, interrogated and isolated, and then released in 1992. In 1994, Oo was arrested again for translating Aung San Suu Khi’s book, Freedom from Fear. The special judge assigned to his case admonished him “for failing to understand and recognize the compassion of the government in releasing him from prison in 1992” and found him guilty. He was sent back to an isolation cell was to serve the remainder of his first sentence and the addition to his second sentence, totaling a 14-year sentence.
During his prison term, he Oo was not allowed any visitors, except for his wife, whose last visit was in February of 2002. She was then denied further contact with her husband. Oo reportedly suffers from heart disease, and had surgery in June 2001 for a slipped disk. According to his wife, Oo is now in very poor health.
The Myanmar government has not commented on the release, and observers are sceptical that it points to political reform. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), based in Thailand, told the new site http://www.irrawady.org that until the July 6th release, there were over 1300 political prisoners in Burmese jails. The National League for Democracy said that they had received word that up to 400 prisoners would be released. According to English PEN, it is possible that the releases were intended to lesson objections to Myanmar’s upcoming chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian nations. However, Reuters reports that the Philippines are now slated to chair the Association next year. General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains under house arrest.