A layout designer and poet has been released after being detained by Rangoon Division Special Branch of the police for about 10 days.
Khant Min Htet, layout designer of Rangoon-based "Ahlingar Wutyee Journal", was arrested on October 22 and was taken to Aung Thabyay interrogation center. His poet father and "Padauk Pwint Thit" magazine editor-in-chief Maung Sein Nee said the police released his son on November 1.
“He is in good health. They summoned the family members and handed him over to us,” Maung Sein Nee said.
On the same day, at least 15 Cyclone Nargis volunteer relief workers, including freelance reporter Pai Soe Oo aka Jay Pai and editor Thant Zin Soe of the "Foreign Affairs Journal" were released from detention. The authorities called their family members and handed them over at their office.
“Both detainees and their guardians had to sign a bond before being released. An official told us that they forgave these youths for their mistake and wrongdoing, but we have to control them from doing the same thing again,” said a parent who had fetched his son from the detention center.
Most of the released detainees are members of a Cyclone Nargis volunteer relief group known as ‘Lin Let Kye’.
According to the detainees' family members, they were interrogated by authorities about the source of their funds for the relief work and whether they had contacts with opposition groups in exile. The families, however, said they do not know if the detainees were tortured.
“We did not find any torture marks on his body,” Khant Min Htet’s mother said. She was very happy following his release.
Some of the publications have not yet taken back in the detainees for fear of retaliation from the authorities. But Khant Min Htet has been back working at his layout design job in "Ahlingar Wutyee" journal soon after his release from detention. Pai Soe Oo aka Jay Pai also visited his journal office today but it is not yet known whether he has gotten back his job.
Amnesty International (AI) recently demanded the release of all the detained relief workers.
