A group of leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) met family members of different imprisoned ethnic leaders at the home of a Shan ethnic leader in Rangoon yesterday.

On 3 August, the group led by U Win Tin and U Tin Oo, along with other members including Dr. Nay Win Myint, U Naing Naing, Ms Cho Cho Thin were said to have met family members of Khun Htun Oo, Chairman of Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), which was the second largest winning party in Burma and the winning party in Shan State in the 1990 elections; as well as Sai Nyunt Lwin aka Sai Nood, general secretary of SNLD, Sai Hla Aung and Pu Gin Xin Thang, Chairman of Zomi National Congress (his son and nephew are in jail) and mother of Tin Saw Aung, Rakhaing youth leader, according to Sai Lake, the defunct SNLD’s spokesman.

The meeting took place at Khun Htun Oo’s house with the NLD representatives arriving at 10.30 am and staying for just over an hour, he said.

U Win Tin reportedly told the family members of the need to remain strong and told them they should be proud of the detainees’ stand and not mourn as ‘just as every politician has his day to go to jail, likewise he has the day to be released,’ he said.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD have always stood by the ethnic nationalities, never ignoring issues about ethnic affairs since it was recognized as a political party. The party will also never leave the ethnic nationalities behind even though it is no longer recognized as a political party because it believes that all ethnic nationalities should have equal and autonomous rights under a genuine union.

“We are happy that they [NLD leaders] came and encouraged us,” said the spokesman for the families. “I also think that if all ethnic nationalities were to come and meet often to exchange opinions and ideas it would be very productive.”

In May, the SNLD had to make an official announcement that it would not re-register to contest in the forthcoming general elections unless its party chairman and other imprisoned leaders are released.

Khun Tun Oo, party leader and elected MP from Hsipaw, is currently serving a 95-year prison term in Burma’s northernmost town Putao, while general secretary Sai Nyunt Lwin aka Sai Nood is serving 85 years in Kalemyo, Sagaing division.

The two were detained along with seven other leaders on 8-9 February 2005 on charges of treason, defamation, setting up of illegal organization and violation of the 5/96 Law prohibiting people from criticizing the constitution drafted by its rulers. The draft was “ratified” by an overwhelming 92 per cent of the country’s eligible voters in May 2008, according to a junta announcement.