Myanmar journalist freed after 19 years

“I will keep fighting until the emergence of democracy in this country,” he told reporters outside a friend’s house in the former Burma’s main city, Yangon. He was still wearing his light-blue prison clothes.

The ailing 79-year-old was arrested in July 1989 and sentenced to jail for giving shelter to a girl thought to have received an illegal abortion.

While inside, he received additional punishment for agitating against the military government and distributing propaganda, bringing his total sentence to 20 years.

He was released on the same day that 9,002 prisoners were set free, but said he had complained to prison officials about being lumped in as part of a nationwide amnesty for ordinary criminals getting out on good behavior.

In protest, he refused to pick up his personal belongings or change into civilian clothes.

“I did not accept their terms for the amnesty. I refused to be one of 9,002,” he said, adding that no conditions had been attached to his release. “Far from it. They should have released me five years ago. They owe me a few years,” he said.

He also played down worries about his health, cited as another reason for his release.

“I am quite OK. I am quite all right,” he said.

Human rights groups had feared his health was in decline. A year ago, Win Tin himself was musing about dying behind bars.

“Will death be my release? As long as democracy and human rights are not within reach, I decline my release. I am prepared to stay,” he wrote in a short poem handed to visiting United Nations human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.

The Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), which tracks inmates of Myanmar’s gulag, said five other prisoners of conscience were also released on Tuesday.

Amnesty International said it was “elated” by news of the releases, even though more than 2,100 people remain behind bars on account of their political or religious beliefs.

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