More than 40 NLD Members of Parliament Still Imprisoned Media Release
22 May 1998
On the eve of the 8th anniversary of the 1990 multi-party elections in Burma, the ruling military government continues to imprison more than 40 Members of Parliament (MPs) from the winning party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).
Forty-two NLD MPs remain under detention, many having been given heavy sentences for trumped up charges and others imprisoned for promoting democracy. Rangoon MP Daw San San recently had her sentence increased from six to 25 years for doing an interview with international media after she refused to end her political activity.
Another MP, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung from Mandalay, was imprisoned in 1990 for attending meetings to form a provisional government and was sentenced to 25 years. In 1996 while in prison, he was given an additional seven years jail for producing a magazine and was beaten and tortured by officers from the Military Intelligence Service.
Since the 1990 election two NLD MPs have died in prison as a result of torture. Details of what has happened to all the 485 candidates elected to Parliament in 1990 are to be published in a new book by the All Burma Students' Democratic Front (ABSDF) entitled 'To Stand And Be Counted: The Suppression of Burma's Members of Parliament'.
Following the NLD's landslide win in the 1990 election in which it gained more than 80 percent of the seats, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) began a systematic campaign of repression against the elected representatives. Over the past eight years the SLORC, now renamed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has intimidated and imprisoned MPs, forced them into exile or to resign, dismissed MPs from parliament and tortured and killed others.
Since the election on 27 May 1990, the SLORC/SPDC has either forced to resign or, through its Election Commission, has dismissed from Parliament some 99 NLD MPs. This represents a quarter of all NLD MPs.
A total of 30 MPS from the NLD and other opposition parties are currently in exile, mainly in India and Thailand. Since the election the SLORC/SPDC has also banned 20 opposition parties which won seats in the election, thereby affecting 49 opposition MPs.
