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Myanmar dissident enjoys just 17 hours of freedom

AP - Saturday, September 27

YANGON, Myanmar - A former aide to Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was re-arrested less than 24 hours after being freed by the military government in a mass amnesty, an opposition spokesman said Friday.

Win Htein, 64, who had been in prison since 1996, was among seven members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party released Tuesday in an amnesty granted to 9,002 prisoners around the country.

Party spokesman Nyan Win, citing Win Htein's family, said he was arrested 17 hours after being released from Kathar prison in northern Myanmar.

The family said authorities did not give any reason for re-arresting him.

Family members had traveled to Mandalay, halfway to where he was imprisoned, to meet him, but he did not show up. Prison authorities later told the family that Win Htein had spent the night at a guest house in Kathar and was then taken back to the prison there, said Nyan Win.

"This is cruel and should not happen," Nyan Win commented. "This is mental torture."

Win Htein had been serving a 14-year sentence on charges of providing false information to the foreign press, according to the U.S. Campaign for Burma, which lobbies against aid to the military regime.

A former army officer, Win Htein joined Suu Kyi's party when it was formed in 1988 and served as a personal assistant and senior adviser to Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo.

According to the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Win Htein was arrested briefly in early 1989 and tortured, then arrested again in 1989 and held until 1995.

Myanmar holds about 2,000 political prisoners, according to the United Nations and Amnesty International. The most prominent is Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest in Yangon and has been in detention for about 13 of the past 19 years.

Tuesday's amnesty was granted to prisoners around the country who exhibited good "moral behavior," the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported.

Another prominent member of Suu Kyi's party, journalist Win Tin, was also released in the amnesty. He remains free despite public statements reaffirming his commitment to fight for democracy. International rights groups said he was the nation's longest serving political prisoner, held for 19 years.

Myanma Ahlin said the prisoners were released "so they could participate in the fair elections to be held in 2010."

The elections are part of the junta's long-announced "road map to democracy," which will give voters the first chance to cast ballots since 1990.

Critics say the road map is a sham designed to cement the military's power. A military-backed constitution was approved by a national referendum in May this year, but the opposition charges that the vote was unfair.

The terms of the charter perpetuate the military's influence over politics and bar Suu Kyi from public office.

Before he was re-arrested on Wednesday, Win Htein gave an interview to the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based shortwave radio station and Web site that is run by exiled Myanmar dissidents. He said he could not accept the new constitution but that "if we oppose or go against the constitution, we will be sent back to prison."

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