» 01/24/2012 12:48 MYANMAR Burmese dissident dies a few days after he is released under an amnesty Political activist Thet New was released from Insein Prison on 13 January where he was purging a 38-year sentence. Ten years behind bars had taken their toll on his mind and body as a result of endless torture and abuses that landed him in a psychiatric hospital twice. His sister asks the government to stop tormenting people under false charges.
Yangon (AsiaNews) – Thet New, a Burmese political activist, was buried today in Yangon. He died from the effects of the physical torture and psychological violence he endured whilst in prison. He had been released only 10 days ago thanks to a presidential amnesty, one of the 300 prisoners of conscience released on 13 January (see “High profile Burmese political prisoners freed,” in AsiaNews, 13 January 2012) following a decree signed by President Thein Sein that was well received by the international community. Monk Ashin Gambira and Generation 88 student leader Min Ko Naing were among those released.
In an interview with dissident media organisation Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), Thet’s sister Marlaw Nwe, who was also jailed with him in 2002, said that he died Sunday afternoon from liver disease. He had spent ten years during which his mind and body were badly abused (here he is in a picture by DVB taken a few days ago).
When she saw him on 13 January at the gates of Insein prison, where he was supposed to purge a 38-year sentence, he was lying in a trishaw since he was unable to take the few steps from the prison block to the edge of the compound. His teeth had been knocked out during a heavy bout of torture years before. “He seemed happy then, even though he was in a lot of pain.”
Thet Nwe, 54, had worked as an organiser for the National League for Democracy–Liberated Areas in Thailand before he returned to Burma in 2002. Upon his arrival, he and Marlaw Nwe were arrested and taken to an interrogation centre run by Military Intelligence officials operating under the auspices of former prime minister and intelligence chief Khin Nyunt, who was later arrested by Myanmar’s military strongman General Than Shwe and released from house arrest on the same day as Thet Nwe.
Marlar Nwe said that interrogators held her brother’s head in a toilet filled with faeces and repeatedly hit him over the head. His hands and feet were shackled and only one hand freed from time to time to allow him to eat. The trauma was so severe that twice during his internment he was admitted to Rangoon Psychiatric Hospital.
“He was afraid to die in prison,” said Marlaw Nwe, who was released herself from Insein jail in 2005 and has since remained in Yangon.
“I would like to tell the government to stop tormenting people under false and unfair charges like the way they did my younger brother,” she said.
Despite the overtures of the Burmese government, the number of political prisoners left in Burma continues to be a matter of debate. According to Amnesty International, 274 were freed on 13 January, whilst the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma put the figure at 299. The group estimates that nearly 1,000 people sentenced on politically motivated charges remain behind bars.
