The military rulers of Myanmar have jailed thousands of people in their continuing efforts to crush all dissenting views.
Most prominent of those detained is Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has been the beacon of hope and
change for nearly two decades in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi, co-founded the National League for Democracy (NLD), a pro-democracy political party that sought to counter
the military junta that had reigned over Myanmar since 1962. In 1990, the NLD won almost 80 percent of the parliamentary seats
in a general election. Surprised at the landslide victory, the military junta refused to transfer power to Aung San Suu Kyi
and the NLD, and jailed scores of political activists.
For 13 of the past 19 years, Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced "Awng Sahn Soo Chee") has endured unofficial detention,
house arrest and restrictions on her movement. She continues to be held under house arrest in Yangon without charge or trial.
Amnesty International seeks the immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all prisoners of conscience
in Myanmar.
Aung San Suu Kyi may be Myanmar's most famous prisoner of conscience, but there are many lesser-known individuals whose
peaceful acts of courage have met with retribution from the government. Ma Khin Khin Leh, a school teacher and young mother,
was serving a life sentence because her husband, a student activist, helped plan a demonstration to be held in Bago on July
19, 1999, to protest government policies and to show support for the NLD. Days before the demonstration was to take place,
authorities moved to prevent it. Failing to find her husband, security agents arrested Ma Khin Khin Leh and the couple's three-year-old
daughter. Although her daughter was released after spending five days in detention, Ma Khin Khin Leh, then age 33, was eventually
transferred to Insein Prison. In December 1999, the Insein Special Court sentenced her to life imprisonment under vaguely-worded
security legislation. Even by the normally harsh standards of "justice" meted out by Myanmar's military government, the life
sentence given to Ma Khin Khin Leh was extreme.
Ma Khin Khin Leh (pronounced "Mah Kin Kin Lay") was believed to be held in Insein Prison, where she reportedly
suffered from an unspecified lung problem, rheumatoid arthritis and dysentery. Amnesty International's concerns for her safety
and well-being were further heightened by the fact that Insein Prison was directly in the path of the destructive Cyclone
Nargis, which struck Myanmar in May 2008.
Authorities in Myanmar have justified the imprisonment of hundreds of students, politicians, doctors, lawyers, housewives,
farmers and others on the basis that they were seeking to cause "unrest." Such arrests have been made possible by laws that
allow an excessively wide interpretation of what constitutes a threat to security.
