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Alert

Detained journalist U Win Tin transferred again to Rangoon general hospital

(RSF/IFEX) - On 3 December 2002, RSF and the Burma Media Association (BMA, an organisation of Burmese journalists in exile) voiced their concern over the health of detained journalist and pro-democracy activist U Win Tin, aged 72, who was transferred to Rangoon general hospital on 23 November.




"Following the recent release of around 100 political prisoners, the Burmese military government should pursue this policy by freeing ailing political prisoners as a priority," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard and BMA Chairman U Thaung said in a letter to the interior minister, Col. Tin Hlaing. U Win Tin, who has been imprisoned for the past 13 years, should be an immediate beneficiary of such a policy, the organisations said.

U Win Tin was taken to the district hospital near Insein prison, on the outskirts of Rangoon, on 22 November for tests in connection with a heart ailment. Because of his electrocardiogram result and the existence of a localised infection, a doctor requested his transfer to Rangoon general hospital the next day.

Since then, he has been kept in one of the rooms reserved for political prisoners, in the hospital's basement, where Htwe Myint and Than Nyein, members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, are also being treated. RSF and the BMA have learned that U Win Tin is being held in a room measuring approximately 15 square metres, where he is examined by a doctor every day and receives medicine for his condition.

Conditions at Insein prison have taken a heavy toll on U Win Tin's health. He has been hospitalised several times. While in prison, he has had two heart attacks, high blood pressure, diabetes and spondylitis (an inflammation of the vertebrae). He has also undergone an operation for a hernia.