Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – In what seems to be a surprise move the Burmese military junta authorities released a high-ranking member of the National league for Democracy from Insein prison yesterday after interrogating him for over two months about Cyclone Nargis relief operations and his party.
The authorities arrested journalist turned politician Ohn Kyaing (63), MP-elect from Mandalay Southeast Township Constituency (2), on October 1 this year while he was serving as the party Cyclone Nargis Relief Committee Chairman.
"They (authority) might have had some information on us. But they realized later all they knew before were absolutely wrong after questioning me," Ohn Kyaing told Mizzima.
But he declined to say what information the authorities had received before hand.
He was arrested from his residence in South Okkalapa, Rangoon Division and taken to Pegu prison the same night. Then he was transferred to Insein prison in Rangoon on November 25 this year.
A jailor in Insein prison told him to pack his belongings at about 11 a.m. yesterday and then sent him back home though he had nursed no such hopes.
The Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi led party won the elections in 1990 but the military regime not only refused to hand over power but put the party under severe pressure. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for over 13 of the past 19 years and party branches have been banned from operating.
According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners-Burma (AAPP-B), at least 400 members of the NLD constitute more than 2100 political prisoners languishing in prisons across the country.
"I hail from Malamyinegyun in Delta region. The leaders of my party assigned me for relief operation. I felt extremely sorry when I saw the scale of devastation in the aftermath of the deadly Cyclone Nargis. I did my best in this operation with full of compassion and benevolence. All our relief committees joined in the relief campaign," Ohn Kyaing said.
He was previously arrested in September 1990 and sentenced to 17 years in prison with charges of disaffection towards State and Government, and endangering the security of the State. This former political prisoner was released from Taungoo prison, Pegu Division on January 3, 2005.
Ohn Kyaing joined NLD since its inception and became a Central Committee member.
