A seminar held this afternoon at Chiangmai University’s Faculty of Social Science, supported by 16 groups (4 Burmese and 12 Thai), had called upon President Thein Sein to unconditionally release “democratic heroes and heroines.”
“This should prove to Asean and the world community their commitment to democratize the country,” it says.
The 16 group Campaign for the release of Women Political Prisoners in Burma (WPPB) pointed out that only 17 women political prisoners have been released on 12 October, when 6,359 prisoners countrywide won amnesty from the government. Of this number, only 220 were political prisoners.
Thiha Yaza, a former political prisoner, and Venerable Issariya, a 2007 Saffron Revolution veteran, were more emphatic. “If they want us to believe there is going to be change, all political prisoners must be released,” said Thiha Yaza (the name meaning Lion King).
“We don’t believe in whatever they are saying,” said Venerable Issariya on his turn to take the floor.
According to the monk who had set up libraries with the name of Best Friend both in Maesot and Chiangmai, some 200 monks are still in jail and another 200 in exile, half of them in Thailand.
