ABSDF NEWS AGENCY (r)

[caroline@xxxxxxxxxx]

Press Release
July 12, 1996

Burmese MP in serious health condition


	U Hla Than, elected MP of the Coco Island, Rangoon Division was
taken into Rangoon General Hospital on July 9, 1996 for unknown health
reason, according to the reliable souce from inside Burma. He was an
elected NLD MP in 1990 general election and was a chairman of Kyimyindain
Township, Rangoon Division. He was arrested in October 1990 and put in
infamous Insein jail. He was among the 21 political prisoners who were
sentenced additional long terms of imprisonment in last March for passing
information to the UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur.
	Prisons and jails in Burma are notorious for ill-treatment
including torture, prolonged shackling, lack of proper medical care and
insufficient food to the prisoners especially to the political prisoners.
Political prisoners face beating, sometimes to the point of
unconsciousness; being forced to crawl over sharp stones; sleep
deprivation;  being held in the hot sun; being held in the solitary
confinement cells or in the military dog cells for prolonged periods.
	Many political prisoners were reportedly died of ill treatment and
torture during their time in the prisoner.  Recently, Myint Swe, suspect
of former ABSDF member died on June 13, 1996 in Theyet prison in the
middle of Burma.  As he was a Muslim, his body was allowed to cremate at
the same day of his death. His family later found out that his skull bone
and jaw were broken. It was believed that he was seriously torture before
he died. However, no explanation was given by the prison authorities.
	Similarly, on June 22, James Leander Nichols, an unaccredited
representative for Denmark, Finland, Norway and Switzerland died in
prison. London-based Amnesty International said Nichols reportedly had
been deprived of sleep for several days before dying. 


ABSDF News Agency
ABSDF (DAWN GWIN)