Apr.4, 2007.-  Ma Khin Khin Leh and her husband are still behind bars 7 months after this report was published.  You may sign a petition to free both prisoners of conscience here.

Sep.23.- As any parents might, Ma Khin Khin Leh and her husband may have hoped for a better future for their young daughter. But the actions of the military government had mainly brought hardship to the people of Myanmar, the Southeast Asian nation formerly known as Burma. So Ma Khin Khin Leh, a school teacher, and her husband Kyaw Wunna, a student activist, helped to plan a peaceful demonstration to be held in the town of Bago on July 19, 1999, to protest government policies and to show support for the National League for Democracy (NLD), the political party headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, also jailed. Although the NLD had won an overwhelming majority of the seats in national parliamentary elections in 1990, the military authorities refused to honor the election results, and instead jailed scores of political activists, including many of those newly elected to the parliament.

Jailed for the past seven years, Ma Khin Khin Leh observed her 40^th birthday last month behind bars.  She is serving a life sentence under a vaguely worded law that allows political activists to be imprisoned for “inciting national unrest”.

Se is only one of thousands of Myanmar activist imprisoned by the military authorities over the years.  Despite the 1988 slaughter of hundreds of citizens protesting Myanmar’s one-party rule and persistent persecution, activists continue to defy their government.

ParticipatoryDemocracy.net believes their incarceration and brutal repression of their rights deserves international support.  Please, send politely worded letters to the chairman of the State Peace and Developmental Council, urging him to bring about the immediate and unconditional release of Ma Khin Khin Leh and all prisoners of conscience in Myanmar:  Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman, State Peace and Developmental Council, c/o Embassy of the Union of Myanmar, 2300 S Street N, Washington, DC 200008. Fax: 202-332-4351.