Junta detains UNHCR rejected Burmese student
October 15, 2007 - Pressure from the international community to refrain from arresting and torturing dissidents seems to have made no difference to the Burmese military junta. The regime backed organizations continue to search for and arrest the rest of NLD members and democracy activists across Burma.
The places (in green square shape)where a student from Chin state was arrested and detained by Burmese regime.
Members of the police force, military intelligence and Quart Council caught Thang Tong (36) of the NLD's student wing from his home in Matupi town in Chin state, northwestern Burma at midnight on September 29, 2007. He has been detained in jail in Mindat town in Chin state, sources close to the detainee said.
"He might be produced in a district court in Mindat for further trial next week," added a source in Chin state.
The Burmese authorities detained Thang Tong accusing him of snatching a camera of a junta informer, who was taking pictures of a welcoming function organized by NLD members and students in Matupi during Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's political tour to Matupi, southern part Chin state on April 10, 2003.
"Actually, he neither snatched nor kept that camera. But it was just an excuse the junta uses when they need to arrest some one from opposition groups," a critic from Chin state said.
Thang Tong along with other NLD members fled to India in June 2003 as military authorities cracked down and arrested two NLD members and one student leader in Matupi for organizing the people to welcome Aung San Suu Kyi after Depayin massacre in which she and supporters were attacked by junta backed organizations in May 30, 2003.
Thang Tong also sought refugee status from the United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees office in New Delhi, India but his case was rejected. After that, he returned to Burma.
The fate of his two daughters, two sons and wife at home in Matupi are not known. – Khonumthung.
