국제앰네스티는 사프란 혁명(Saffron Revolution) 3주년을 맞은 지난 9월 23일 목요일 미얀마 정부에 평화적 활동 때문에 수감된 정치수들의 즉각적이고 무조건적인 석방을 요구했다.
현재 미얀마 정부는 2,200명 이상의 정치수들을 수감하고 있으며 이것은 2007년 8월 발생한 연료와 생필품 가격인상 반대시위 이전과 비교했을 때 2배나 많은 수이다.
국제앰네스티는 이들 중 대다수는 단지 표현•집회•결사의 자유에 대한 권리를 행사했다는 이유만으로 수감된 양심수라 판단한다고 밝혔다.
전국에서 발생했던 이 평화적 시위는 샤프란 혁명이라 불리우며 2007년 9월 정부에 의해 폭력적으로 진압되었다. 최소 31명에서 최대 100명 이상의 사망자가 발생했고 이보다 훨씬 많은 수의 참가자들이 부상을 당했다. 최소 74명이 실종되었으며 수천 명의 참가자들이 구금 되었다.
유엔안전보장이사회(UN Security Council), 유엔인권이사회(UN Human Rights Council), 동남아국가연합(ASEAN) 등이 전례없이 극도의 불편함을 표명하며 변화를 요구하는 등 이 폭력적 진압은 국제사회의 강력한 비난을 샀다.
하지만 아직 미얀마는 자칭 “민주주의로 향한 로드맵(Roadmap to Democracy)”의 일환으로 20년만의 첫 선거를 앞두고 있음에도 불구하고 지속적으로 정치적 반대세력들을 탄압하고 있다. 
POLITICAL PRISONERS IN MYANMAR MUST BE FREED
23 September 2010On the third anniversary of the violent crackdown on the “Saffron Revolution”, Amnesty International has called on the Myanmar government to immediately and unconditionally free all political prisoners arrested for their peaceful activism. The Myanmar authorities continue to imprison over 2,200 political prisoners—more than double the number held before the August 2007 protests against sharp fuel and commodity price rises.
“While the international community, including Myanmar’s ASEAN neighbours, has been calling for free, fair and inclusive elections there, the plight of thousands of political prisoners has been overlooked,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher.
Amnesty International said it believes the vast majority of those held are prisoners of conscience who are being punished merely for peacefully exercising their rights to free expression, assembly and association.
The Myanmar government will hold its first elections in 20 years on 7 November 2010 against a backdrop of political repression and systematic violence. Under Electoral Laws enacted in March 2010, no political prisoner can take part in the elections or hold membership in any political party.
International attention in recent months has focused on the power-play between the military and the government’s proxy parties on the one hand; and the armed ethnic minority groups, the National League for Democracy, and a small number of new opposition parties on the other.
“The long-standing problem of political imprisonment in Myanmar remains very much at the heart of the political impasse in the country,” said Benjamin Zawacki.
“These prisoners constitute a significant part of the political opposition.”
In the largest show of public discontent against the military government in Myanmar since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, tens of thousands of protesters—led by Buddhist monks—took to the streets in August and September 2007, demanding economic and political reforms.
The peaceful country-wide demonstrations were violently put down by the authorities in late September 2007. At least 31 (and possibly more than a hundred) people were killed — with many more injured and at least 74 disappeared — and thousands detained.
The brutal crackdown provoked international condemnation, including an unprecedented expression of revulsion and demands for change from the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Yet even as Myanmar prepares for its first elections in two decades, as part of what it calls a “Roadmap to Democracy”, it continues to repress political opposition.
“It beggars belief that the government can attempt to burnish its democratic credentials by holding elections, while it also holds more than 2,200 political prisoners behind bars and out of sight of the campaigns and polls,” said Benjamin Zawacki.
“The international community should point out to Myanmar that these practices cannot be reconciled under any genuine Roadmap to Democracy.”
Political prisoners in Myanmar are held in deplorable conditions.
Many of those who took part in the Saffron Revolution, such as labour rights campaigner Su Su Nway, monk leader and activist U Gambira, and 88 Generation Student group members Min Ko Naing, Htay Kywe, Mie Mie, Ko Mya Aye and Zaw Htet Ko Ko, are in poor health.
In the past two years, at least 238 political prisoners have been moved to extremely remote prisons, restricting their access to relatives, lawyers and medical care.
Reports of torture and other ill-treatment are rife.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to prisons in Myanmar since late 2005.
“On this third anniversary of the Saffron Revolution, Amnesty International calls on world leaders to demand that the Myanmar government free all political prisoners at once, and ensure human rights protection throughout the elections period and beyond,” said Benjamin Zawacki.
