BURMESE JUNTA SENTENCES 80 YEAR OLD

[lurie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Media Release
Date: May 5, 1998
                                    
                                    
            BURMESE JUNTA SENTENCES 80-YEAR OLD NLD ADVISER 
                           TO LONG PRISON TERM


In early April this year, Burma's State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) sentenced an adviser to the National League for
Democracy (NLD), Thakhin Ohn Myint, to seven years imprisonment
for assisting a student historian to write a history of the
Burmese student movement.

Thakhin Ohn Myint, 80, was detained in February along with
several other people who were accused of aiding Aung Tun to write
a book on the history of the Burmese student movement. Thakhin
Ohn Myint was subsequently charged under Section 17 (20) of the
1962 Printers and Publishers Registration Act and given a
seven-year prison term with hard labour. 

Thakhin Ohn Myint is a well-known independence freedom fighter
and was a close colleague of Burmese independence hero General
Aung San. 

According to sources in Rangoon, the Burmese military regime
released Thakhin Ohn Myint in late March 1998. However, he was
re-arrested the following day by Military Intelligence Service
officers. He was later secretly sentenced to seven years
imprisonment.

In 1959, Thakhin Ohn Myint was detained for one year without
trial under the Caretaker Government led by General Ne Win.
 
Thakhin Ohn Myint was arrested in 1989 by the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC) for supporting the pro-democracy
movement and was given three years imprisonment. He was released
in 1992. Under the SLORC/SPDC regime, he has been summoned,
questioned and threatened on a regular basis in connection with
his role in the democratic movement.

On June 13, 1997, Thakhin Ohn Myint was detained for one month by
the SLORC without a formal charge for an alleged connection with
Cho Aung Than, a cousin of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Cho Aung Than
was sentenced to a long prison term for an alleged plot against
the military leaders. 

All Burma Students' Democratic Front 

For more information please call 01-654 4984.