Myanmar Frees Longest-Serving Political Prisoner

YANGON, Myanmar -- Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner, journalist Win Tin, was freed from Insein Prison on Tuesday after 19 years behind bars, family members said.
The 78-year-old Win Tin, a poet and editor who was a close aide of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was arrested during a 1989 crackdown on opposition politicians. He was sentenced three times to a total of 21 years in prison.
Win Tin's release came as part of an amnesty granted to 9,002 prisoners around the country. Family members said Win Tin was in "good health," despite recent reports that he was ailing. They spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from the junta.
The United Nations and international-rights groups had repeatedly called for the release of Win Tin and referred to him as the longest-serving political prisoner in Myanmar. Amnesty International called for his release in July, saying Win Tin had been in solitary confinement for most of his imprisonment and needed urgent medical attention.
Win Tin was most recently sentenced in March 1996 to an additional seven years of imprisonment for writing to the U.N. about prison conditions and for writing and circulating antigovernment pamphlets in prison, which authorities characterized as "secretly publishing propaganda to incite riots in jail," Amnesty said.
State-controlled media announced the prisoner amnesty, saying freedom was granted to prisoners around the country who exhibited good "moral behavior."
"The government is trying to transform these convicted prisoners into citizens who can contribute to the building of a new nation," the Myanma Ahlin newspaper said, adding they were released "so they could participate in the fair elections to be held in 2010." The elections are part of the junta's long announced "roadmap to democracy," which will give voters the first chance to cast ballots since 1990. Critics say the roadmap is a sham designed to cement the military's power.
In 1990, Ms. Suu Kyi's opposition party won a landslide victory that the junta refused to acknowledge. Instead, the generals stepped up arrests and repression of dissidents. Ms. Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 of the past 19 years in detention and is currently under house arrest.
The government often grants amnesties to mark important national days, but most of those released are petty criminals. Tuesday's amnesty came ahead of the one-year anniversary of the junta's deadly Sept. 26-27, 2007, crackdown on antigovernment protests that were led by Buddhist monks.
The U.N. estimated at least 31 people, including a Japanese photojournalist, were killed when the army fired on peaceful protesters. Hundreds of activists were arrested in the crackdown and many fled the country or went underground.

Source: The Wall Street Journal