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RSF releases petition to free Burmese bloggers |
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by Nem Davies
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Friday, 30 January 2009 21:33 |
New Delhi (Mizzima) - A Media Watch group Reporters Without Border (RSF) has released a petition for the freedom of two well known Burmese bloggers, who were sentenced to long prison terms, by Burma's ruling junta.
The Paris-based RSF, in its petition, called for the release of blogger Nay Phone Latt and popular comedian and blogger Zarganar, who were sentenced to long prison terms last year.
RSF urged the international community especially the United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who is slated to visit military-ruled Burma this weekend, to pay close attention to the issue.
Nay Phone Latt was arrested on 29 January 2008, and popular Burmese comedian Zarganar was arrested on June 2008 from his residence for being involved in cyclone relief work in the Irrawaddy delta.
"They did nothing to deserve the punishment and must be freed," RSF said in the petition.
While Nay Phone Latt was charged under crime against public tranquility, the video act and the electronic law, Zarganar was charged with similar cases and was sentenced to 59 years in jail term in November.
Beside sentencing them to long prison terms, the junta also sent Nay Phone Latt to a remote prison in Pha-an, Karen state and Zarganar to Myitkyina in Kachin state.
Family members said they were barred from meeting them since the first week of January and hoped to get a chance to visit them next month.
"My last visit to Thura [Zarganar] was in January but the authorities did not allow me to talk face to face with him and I came back home. Some jail staff told me that, authorities had stopped visits by family members. But they did not tell me how long this would last," Ma Nyein, sister-in-law of Zarganar, told Mizzima.
"I got a letter from my brother, dated 15 January, but it was in an open envelop, as the jail authorities usually check it before they deliver it by post," she added.
Nay Phone Latt's parents said they are also waiting for a chance next month to visit him.
"I could only deliver a parcel to my son this month. I do not want to request the authorities this time to meet my son, as every political prisoners' parents and relatives have been facing the same problem," Nay Phone Latt's mother Aye Aye Than told Mizzima over telephone on Friday.
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