New Delhi - A court in Rangoon's Insein prison on Tuesday gave fourteen student activists up to 65 years of jail time for their involvement in anti-government rallies in September 2007, the mother of one of the activists said.
The student activists, widely known as members of the '88 generation students', were convicted on four counts of illegally using electronic media and were given 15 years for each charge plus five years for forming an illegal organization, totaling 65 years.
According Nyunt Nyunt Kyi, mother of Panneik Tun, her son along with Jimmy (aka) Kyaw Minn Yu, Min Zeya, Ant Bwe Kyaw, Zeya (aka) Kalama, Thet Zaw, Aye Than (aka) Thant Tin, Zaw Zaw Min, Nilar Thein, Mar Mar Oo, Sandar Min, Mie Mie (aka) Thin Thin Aye, Thet Thet Aung and Kyaw Kyaw Htwe were each given 65 years of imprisonment.
"Don't ask me how I feel. I don't want to say it, but I feel like I am watching a poorly directed movie in which the sequence of events has no logical link to the scenes," Nyunt Nyunt Kyi told Mizzima, apparently referring to the court's heavy decision.
Another nine activists, from Irrawaddy's Bogale Township, on Tuesday were given prison sentences of eight to 24 years for their roles in the September 2007 protests, sources said.
Sources said the nine activists were charged with illegally crossing an international boundary, associating with illegal organizations and inciting people to threaten national security – in addition to being charged under the Printing Press Act.
Meanwhile, a prominent labor rights activist, Suu Suu Nwe, was also sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment on Tuesday.
While the junta handed down prison terms to more than 20 activists on Tuesday, another nine prominent 88 generation students, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe, are still standing trial and awaiting their sentences.
Min Ko Naing, along with 12 of his colleagues, were arrested by authorities in August 2007 for rallying on the streets of Burma's former capital of Rangoon after a drastic hike in fuel prices.
The court, while continuing the trial of Min Ko Naing and his friends, sentenced them to six months imprisonment on the charge of contempt of court after they complained of unfairness in their trial. Following the sentence, they were transferred from Insein to Maupin prison in the Irrawaddy Division.
The junta, after bloodily cracking down on protestors in September last year, began systematically hunting down key leaders and activists, arresting hundreds. Since July, the regime has put activists on trial under a tightly controlled court inside Insein prison.
The court also recently sentenced three lawyers – Nyi Nyi Htwe, Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein – who were representing the activists, to four and six month prison terms on charges of contempt of court.
Thakhin Chan Tun, a veteran politician in Rangoon who also took part in Burma's struggle for freedom from British rule, said throughout his time he has never known of a regime that hands down such severe penalties on dissidents.
"I have never seen the government being so rude, even during the Burma Socialist Programme Party [BSPP] regime or the revolutionary council regime. During those days, the government at least followed the rules that they had set," Chan Tun said.
"But now the law seems to be just a namesake and does not have any value. The junta is doing everything it wills. Sentencing young people to long prison terms only shows that they are doing everything at will and do not care about the laws or anybody," he added.
Nyan Win, spokesperson for detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party – National League for Democracy – said Tuesday's sentencing of activists is an act meant to terrorize others against daring to involve themselves in politics.
"It has been twenty years since the junta has been doing these things [suppressing dissidents]. There is no stability in politics, and the economy is deteriorating and it is bound to be this way under ongoing military rule. If they continue like this the country will only further deteriorate," Nyan Win said.
Meanwhile, Aye Thar Aung, an ethnic politician and secretary of the Committee Representing Peoples' Parliament (CRPP), said the junta's severe punishment against activists only indicates that they are not interested in implementing genuine change.
"Despite their claim that they are moving forward to democracy, such repression shows that the regime is not genuinely building for democracy and it is clear that the country will further deteriorate in the near future," Aye Thar Aung said.
Yet the junta, despite widespread criticism over its harsh treatment of dissidents, also on Monday sentenced a young Burmese blogger, Nay Phone Latt, who was catalyst in bringing out pictures of the junta's bloody crackdown on protestors in September 2007 through his web-log, to 20 years and six months of imprisonment.
