ETHNIC LEADERS AND FEMALE STUDENTS

[lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Media Release
Date: April 30, 1998


        ETHNIC LEADERS AND FEMALE STUDENTS GIVEN LONG JAIL TERMS 
                      FOR AIDING STUDENT HISTORIAN


The Peace and Development Council (SPDC) sentenced Dr. Maung
Maung Kyaw and two other ethnic leaders to 10 years imprisonment
for assisting a student historian in his work to write a history
of the Burmese student movement. The military regime also
sentenced two female student leaders to seven-year prison terms
under the same charge.

Dr. Maung Maung Kyaw was arrested in late February this year,
along with the two female student leaders, Suu Suu Win and Khin
Moe Aye, and ethnic leaders U Tha Ban and Khun Sai. All five were
accused of supplying historical background and other information
to student leader Aung Htun who wrote a history of the Burmese
student movement. 

Aung Htun, who is a Central Executive Committee (CEC) member of
the All Burma Federation of Students Union (ABFSU), was given 15
years jail in March this year for writing the book.  

Dr. Maung Maung Kyaw and the other four were charged under
Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency Provision Act and under
Section 17 (20) of the 1962 Printers and Publishers Registration
Act. Suu Suu Win and Khin Moe Aye were each given seven years,
while Dr. Maung Maung Kyaw and the other two ethnic leaders were
sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a Special Court in early
April this year. All five were refused access to legal counsel. 

Dr. Maung Maung Kyaw is a well-known and respected lawyer and is
the patron of the Society for International Friendship (Union of
Burma). He was first arrested in 1989 for working with Daw Aung
San Suu Kyi in carrying out political defiance work and was
released in April 1992.

Suu Suu Win and Khin Moe Aye were first arrested in December 1991
for leading a student demonstration at Rangoon University, and
demanding the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.
The two were jailed for 10 years each but were released in May
1992.

U Tha Ban is a journalist and lawyer, and a CEC member of the
Union National League for Democracy (UNLD), a coalition of legal
ethnic political parties allied with the National League for
Democracy (NLD). He was first detained in January 1991 and given
a five-year prison term under Section 5(j) of the 1950 Emergency
Provision Act. He was released in February 1995.  

This is the third time Khun Sai has been jailed in the past 25
years. He was given a seven-year prison sentence for his role in
the 1974 U Thant Funeral Strike by the then Burma Socialist
Programme Party (BSPP), and in November 1989 he was detained for
his political activities and sentenced to five years
imprisonment. He was released in 1993. 

All Burma Students' Democratic Front

For more information please call 01-654 4984.