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NEWS - Myanmar Challenges Party to



Subject: NEWS - Myanmar Challenges Party to Detail Prison Transfers

NOTE: They are willing yet, in Burma's closed and resticted system,
providing good evidence would be difficult.  How would a person obtain
information about system controlled by the regime that won't let them
even travel freely.  It is difficult to take information from a 'locked'
safe.


Myanmar Challenges Party to Detail Prison Transfers

               AP
               07-JUN-99

               BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Myanmar's military regime
               challenged the opposition Monday to provide details on
               prisoners allegedly moved from prison before a rare visit
by
               the International Committee of the Red Cross. 

               The National League for Democracy has said that the ICRC
               delegation was subjected to a sham during a visit to
Insein
               Prison, where many of the country's political prisoners
are
               held. 

               "It would be very interesting to know if the NLD is
willing to
               and can provide us with names, dates and places where the
               inmates were alleged to have been transferred just before
               the ICRC's visit to the Insein correctional facility," a
               government spokesman said in a statement made on
               customary condition of anonymity. 

               Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and winner of the
               1991 Nobel Peace Prize, said last week that detainees at
the
               prison in Myanmar's capital, Yangon, were transferred to
               faraway prisons so the delegation would not see them. 

               Thousands of party members have been imprisoned or
               detained over the past decade since Suu Kyi's party won
               legislative elections. The military in Myanmar, also
known as
               Burma, never allowed parliament to meet. 

               Suu Kyi's party normally finds it extremely difficult to
learn
               what has happened to members who disappear into the
               closed legal system. Often, the party is only able to
guess
               what is happening based on information received from
family
               members. 

               Former prisoners and human rights groups have called
               conditions in Myanmar's prisons inhumane and intolerable

               and said torture is common. Some political prisoners are
               kept in tiny cells meant to house dogs. 

               Suu Kyi said the transfers are a hardship because they
put
               prisoners hundreds of miles from their families. The
               prisoners depend on their families for medicine and food
               packages, she said.