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SCMP-Military secretly cremates jai



South China Morning Post
Saturday  August 15  1998

Military secretly cremates jailed MP 

WILLIAM BARNES 
An MP from opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party has been secretly
cremated after dying in one of Burma's notorious jails.

U Saw Win, 61, was the third National League for Democracy MP to die in
prison after being elected in the 1990 general election, said the All Burma
Students Democratic Front yesterday.

The group urged the Government to allow the International Committee of the
Red Cross access to all political prisoners in Burma.

The Red Cross closed its office in Rangoon in 1995 after it was not allowed
to make jail visits.

Several of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters have died in prison.

"We are deeply shocked at the news of U Saw Win's untimely death, and we
demand to know the circumstances," said the student front's foreign affairs
spokesman, Aung Naing Oo.

The league has demanded Parliament be convened by next Saturday along the
lines of the 1990 election in which it won four-fifths of the seats. But
the military - which ignored the election result - has tried to reduce the
party's legitimacy by whittling down its MPs.

The league claims that of its 392 MPs in the 484-seat Parliament, 112 have
been dismissed by the official election commission or coerced into
resigning.

Seventeen MPs have died. A further 11 are in exile and 83 are under some
kind of detention to stop them travelling to see Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.

U Saw Win was sentenced to 11 years in prison a year after the election for
allegedly failing to transport logs quickly enough during the construction
of the Rangoon-Thanlyin Bridge.

His body was cremated in Thayawaddy Prison, 160km north of Rangoon, without
the permission or presence of his family two days after his death on August
9, according to the student front.