By IRNA
New Delhi : Burmese journalists have sought India's intervention in securing the release of U Win Tin, a prominent media personality who has been held in detention by Myanmarese military junta for the last 18 years.
The media persons asked India to put pressure on the junta to release 78-year-old Tin, who was detained on July 4, 1989, and other pro-democracy political prisoners.
Tin was a prominent leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) which won the 1990 Burmese elections and was instrumental in developing that country's media, a release issued Wednesday by Burma Media and Journalists (India) said.
They alleged that Tin, whom they claimed was a "guiding star of Burma", was suffering from gout, heart disease and diabetes due to the "inhumane ill treatment" meted out to him in the prison by the junta.
More than 20 media persons have been arrested since 1988 when the junta captured power for "expressing what they believe is as the truth". Six of them died in the jail, they claimed.
The journalists also held a march in the capital demanding the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar and submitted a memorandum to the government seeking its intervention.
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