Help Ashin Gambira and the political prisoners in Burma.

Ashin Gambira, who is serving a 63-year sentence for leading the peaceful protests, known as the Saffron Revolution, in 2007 started a hunger strike on May 27. He is one of four political prisoners in Burma’s remote Kale prison that have addressed a letter to Burma’s Minister of Home Affairs, U Ko Ko.

In the letter they wrote:
“After the election held on 7th of November the Republic of Myanmar has announced to the world that they have formed a democratic government.
“According to a democratic form of Government we, the political prisoners, must have rights. We must have the right:
-         to have health care
-         to be able to get enough food
-         to communicate with our families freely
-         to read officially published books
-         to listen to radio, watch television, including international channels
-         to be treated according to the prison laws
The letter was signed by U Nyi Pu, U Gambira, Ko Htay Aung (aka) Ko Aung Myat and Ko Min Min Htun.
U Gambira’s sister Khin Thu Htay, who visited Ashin Gambira on 14 May, said that the hunger strike had started on Friday because of the lack of any response to the letter.
When she tried to visit him on May 27 again, she was refused entrance at the prison gate. At the same time “a local police official and a Special Branch official arrived and apparently they were there to collect information about the hunger strike.
On 17 May, the day after Burmese President Thein Sein announced a controversial amnesty that reduced the sentence of all prisoners for one year in a countrywide commutation, around 30 political prisoners joined a hunger strike in the notorious Insein prison.
Some of the political prisoners have sentences of more than 60 or hundred years, for them to reduce the sentence for one year is like mental torture, it is ridiculous.
Burma’s authorities are known to react with harsh punishment to such demands. At least seven of the Insein protesters were placed in solitary confinement for several days in so called “dog cells”.
Help Ashin Gambira and the political prisoners in Burma.
Send a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs now >>
http://www.thebestfriend.org/2011/05/31/%E2%80%9Cpolitical-prisoners-must-have-rights/#more-8933