Detained Shan leader: Body in turmoil, mind at peace

No.06 - 6/2007
18 June 2007
Politics
 
Detained Shan leader: Body in turmoil, mind at peace
 
Khun Tun Oo, elected Shan leader who was detained and sentenced to a 93 year prison term in 2005, has been marking his time at Burma's northernmost prison in Putao in peace, according to a family friend.
 
"I have prepared myself since Day One for this eventuality when I decided to go into politics," he was quoted as saying. "So the long ordeal may break my body but not my spirits."
 

^{Khun Tun Oo}

Unlike him, many inmates including officers from the deposed Prime Minister Khin Nyunt's Military Intelligence Service (MIS), who had been top dogs in the country before his downfall in 2004, have still not got over the shock of the sudden downturn in their lives. "They are mere shells of their former selves," the source said. "And their health conditions are fast deteriorating."
 
Khun Tun Oo himself is said to be suffering under high blood pressure and diabetes.
 
Khun Tun Oo (Hkun Htoon Oo, according to his own spelling), who will be 64 on 11 September, is the nephew of Prince Sao Kya Hseng of Hsipaw, who disappeared during the military takeover in 1962. His party the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) won the second largest seats in the 1990 elections. One of his 8 colleagues who were sentenced at the same time for treason, "Math" Myint Than, died on 2 May 2006 in Sandoway prison.
 
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), launching an urgent appeals program on 18 January, says convictions of Hkun Tun Oo and 7 others "are all invalid as they were based upon the one set of identical and flawed information, allegations and court testimonies."