Asia Times: ANALYSIS: Prisoners' release a gambit for EU-ASEAN meet



	February 24, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

ANALYSIS: Prisoners' release a gambit for EU-ASEAN meet
By Aung Zaw

CHIANG MAI, Thailand - Burma's release of twopolitical prisoners this month surprised many, but skeptics say itis little more than a public relations gambit ahead of a Marchsummit between European and Southeast Asian nations.

Ma Thida, a 34-year-old political prisoner and well-known short-story writer, was released from Insein prison on Feb 11. Four daysafter her release, another writer, Nyi Pu Lay, was freed.

Dissidents and Burma watchers suggested they were freed as apart of the junta's campaign to lobby the European Union regarding itsobjections to Rangoon's participation at the summit meeting next month in Berlin of the EU and the Association ofSoutheast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

EU members had earlier asked Rangoon to make a human rights''gesture'' before Burma could attend the Mar 29-30 summit.

European governments said they would not sit down with BurmeseForeign Minister Win Aung because of the country's poor humanrights record.

Win Aung recently traveled to four ASEAN countries - Malaysia,Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore - to lobby for Burma'sparticipation in the Berlin summit.

In Singapore, Win Aung said: that other ASEAN representatives ''will not gowithout us, without me. Do you think they will go there without meparticipating in that meeting? I don't think so."

But one Bangkok-based diplomat said the EU is not merely askingBurma to free political prisoners, but wants the Rangoon generalsto open a meaningful political dialogue with the opposition group ledby Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Clearly, however, Ma's release ''is an important gesture to theEU showing Burma's seriousness to attend the Berlin summit,'' thediplomat said.

Skeptics add, though, that the release of the two prisoners does notsignify a change of heart by the junta - given its continuedcrackdown on activists and the opposition National League forDemocracy (NLD).

''No one is fooled by this. We know that Ma Thida is just abargaining chip for Win Aung's trip'' to Berlin, said a Burmeseactivist based in Thailand.

Burma's participation in ASEAN's meetings with Europeangovernments has been a ticklish issue since Rangoon became amember in 1997.

In fact, Burma has replaced East Timor as the most troublesomehuman rights issue that ties up relations between ASEAN andEuropean governments.

Complicated negotiations took place between ASEAN and Europeanofficials ahead of the Asia-Europe meeting in January, withEuropean diplomats insisting the Burmese could attend but notspeak.

Last week, Burma's state media called EU members ''neo-colonialists'' for opposing the country's participation in the Berlinmeeting.

For their part, ASEAN members are caught between a realizationof the dead weight that Rangoon is in ties with Europe and thebelief that the EU must not be permitted to dictate who should or should not be partof the meeting - because Burma is already an ASEAN member.

Like many of Burma's prominent artists and writers, Ma Thidajoined Suu Kyi's NLD in 1988. A friend of Suu Kyi's, she organisedon behalf of the party and gave speeches.

She was arrested in 1990, released, then re-arrested in 1993for distributing leaflets urging people to boycott the junta-organized National Convention. At the time of her arrest she was working as a surgeon at the Muslim Free Hospital.

Ma Thida's short stories, often about her poor patients andBurma's one-party rule, have been banned from publication since she wasput in prison.

Nyi Pu Lay is also a short-story writer whose articles beganappearing in Burmese magazines in the early 1980s.

Independent human rights groups estimate that some 2,000prisoners remain in Burma's prisons, and activists say the political prisoners include more than 200 women.

Famous writer San San Nweh and her daughter are both in Inseinprison. Daw Kyi Kyi, a woman political prisoner now almost 80years old, remains in detention.

Ma Sanda, a former political prisoner and now a member of the AllBurma Federation of Student Unions' Foreign Affairs Committee inexile, said: ''What I know now is the [female] prisoners' healthsituation is getting worse. I heard that many are sick and receiveno proper medical treatment."

Ma Sanda worries about Ma Thida's health, saying: ''We knew thatshe was very sick in prison."

Some detainees have died in prison, or right after being freed.Mandalay monk U Yewata died at the beginning of this year after he wasunexpectedly released from prison. He had organized monks' massiveprotests in 1990s but was later forced to disrobe and was throwninto prison.

'When the authorities realize some important figures are dyingin prisons, ''they release them,'' Ma Sanda said, adding that thejunta carefully and cleverly picked Ma Thida because she is a well-known figure internationally.

But while the Burmese junta recently released some well-knownprisoners, it also handed down heavy sentences to young studentsand activists and persisted with efforts to break up politicalopposition.

Three weeks ago, some 200 students and activists were givenlengthy jail terms.

Thet Win Aung, a student activist in his late 20s, gota 52-year sentence. His close friend, Min Zin, now in exile, notedafterward: ''The sentence is longer than that South African PresidentNelson Mandela had to serve."

Burmese exiles say at least four student leaders were givenjail terms of some 150 years between them. Their crimes weredistributing anti-junta leaflets, organizing protests andcontacting rebel groups along the Thai-Burma border.

The junta has also stepped up its anti-NLD campaign acrossBurma, forcing NLD offices to shut down and, in the provinces,intimidating members of the opposition party and forcing them toresign.

Said a former woman political prisoner: ''Burma is a police state where, regardless of whether one is in jail or not, almost everyone feels like a prisoner."

(Inter Press Service)

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