More than 2,100 political prisoners held in Myanmar: UN

More than 2,100 political prisoners held in Myanmar: UN
Mon Mar 16, 7:04 am ET

GENEVA, March 16, 2009 (AFP) - Many of the more than 2,100 political prisoners held in Myanmar have been sentenced in flawed, closed-door hearings, says a report to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council Monday.

"Many of the prisoners of conscience have been sentenced in close-door hearings within prison compounds, without legal representations, without the presence or knowledge of their family members and without proof of evidence or with defective evidence," says the report by Tomas Okea Quintana, the Special Rapporteur on Myanmar.

Quintana, who based his report on a visit to Myanmar on February 14-19, said some of their defence lawyers had in turn been imprisoned for "contempt of court" -- a charge left open to interpretation by the courts.

Detainees suffered from a lack of medical care during imprisonment and from "physical ill-treatment" during interrogation, he added.

Quintana also noted that more than 600 of these prisoners were being held in prisons far from their hometowns, making family visits a rarity.

Some prisoners were regularly transferred to other prisons, making it difficult for family members to keep track of their whereabouts, Quintan wrote.

And while the junta government released 6,313 prisoners on February 21, only 29 of them were political prisoners.

"This release although welcome, lacks proportionality with the total number of prisoners of conscience which remains more than 2,100," Quintana wrote.

"Therefore, these measures cannot be seen as progressive," he added.