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Myanmar detains over 1 800
01/02/2008 12:05 - (SA)
Bangkok - Military-run Myanmar has detained 1 864 political prisoners, including 706 dissidents arrested during the junta's bloody crackdown on protests last year, an exiled opposition group said on Friday.
The report by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) also said that prisoners are being tortured and denied adequate drinking water and food.
"While in detention, many detainees were denied access to proper medical care," said the group of former political prisoners who maintain contact with prisons around the country.
The report mirrored findings by Amnesty International, which last week said the regime holds at least 1 850 political prisoners, including about 700 arrested during the junta's deadly suppression of anti-government protests in September.
The report was released just one day after Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) issued a sharply worded statement accusing prison guards of abusing detainees and denying them medical care.
Mass protests led by Buddhist monks in September were the biggest challenge to the junta in nearly two decades, but the regime violently quashed the movement, killing at least 31 people and leaving 74 missing, according to the United Nations.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch said about 100 people were killed during the September crackdown, far higher than the 15 dead reported by the junta.
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