SU SU NWAY: RELEASED TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RANGOON 000806

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MLS; PACOM FOR FPA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/11/2016
TAGS: ELAB PHUM PGOV PREL ECON BM
SUBJECT: SU SU NWAY: RELEASED TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY

REF: A. RANGOON 745


B. 05 RANGOON 1174

RANGOON 00000806 001.14 OF 002


Classified By: P/E: TLManlowe for Reasons 1.4 (b, d)


1. (C) Summary: NLD activist Su Su Nway emerged from her
surprise June 6 release from Insein Prison committed to
continue her efforts to eliminate forced labor and gain
freedom for other political prisoners. She faced isolation
and threats in prison, but continued to fight for human
rights at every opportunity. Since her release, she has been
denied access to a telephone, but if she can gain a means of
communication and a tape recorder to capture government
officials' denials of rights for which she fights so
strongly, she is prepared to keep fighting. End summary.

A Fighter Before...
--------------

2. (C) On June 6, authorities released Su Su Nway from Insein
Prison, where she has been serving an eighteen-month sentence
since October 2005 (ref B) for "obscenity" and for verbally
threatening officials in the town where she brought a
surprisingly successful forced labor case against local
authorities. The guilty officials served short sentences,
and others brought suit against Su Su Nway. Su Su Nway went
directly to NLD headquarters from prison; we met her there on
June 13. Her soft-spoken manner belied the strength of her
convictions. She repeated what she told the press upon her
release, that she would much rather have remained in prison
and seen "Aunty Suu" (Aung San Suu Kyi) released instead.

...During...
--------------

3. (C) Prison authorities isolated her from other prisoners,
she said, and anyone who approached her was sent to labor
camps. While in prison, Su Su Nway raised issues of prisoner
rights with warden Soe Tin, asking him to give time off to
prisoners working seven days a week for private garment
factories, to enforce the prohibition against guards carrying
batons, and to prohibit swearing by guards. Her interactions
with the warden, who initially told her that Insein is like a
bathroom where society threw its human waste, became "nicer,"
she said, after she politely told him that she had heard good
things about him and expected him to act correctly.


4. (C) A junior warden told Su Su Nway that a previous female
prisoner who had fought for prisoner benefits had her faced
slashed, allegedly by other prisoners. Su Su Nway replied
that she would continue to fight for the other prisoners'
rights regardless. Later she found her food and water laced
with camphor, which her doctor told her could cause serious
or fatal health problems. The poisoning stopped after she
told her brother at their next closely-monitored meeting that
if she died unexpectedly, he should accuse the Department of
Prisons.

...and After
--------------

5. (C) Two Special Branch officers monitor her every activity
now that she is back in her village, Su Su Nway said, though
visitors can avoid surveillance by coming to her house after
dark. Upon her return to her village, the local ward Peace
and Development Committee (PDC) chairperson refused
permission for two friends who accompanied her to stay at her
house. She called the township police station, and two
officers came to the village, gave permission for her friends
to stay, and instead took the PDC official back to the
station.


RANGOON 00000806 002.2 OF 002



6. (C) Su Su Nway plans to donate the remainder of support
funds collected on her behalf within Burma and abroad, in
equal shares: to political prisoners; for the education of
children of political prisoners; lawyers in the NLD Central
Legal Assistance Committee who provide pro bono legal
support; the NLD Central Executive Committee; and to the
monks who come to NLD headquarters. She will make the all
donations on June 19, Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday.


7. (C) Su Su Nway said that she takes medicine to treat her
rheumatic heart disease. The NLD supplied her with medicine
while she was in prison. She was planning to undergo further
health tests the day she met with us.

A Fighter's Weapons
--------------

8. (C) Su Su Nway told us she will continue her fight to end
forced labor and free all political prisoners and, as long as
she is engaged in the struggle, "prison and I will not be
strangers." She told emboffs that she has no way to
communicate from her village, and even those offering public
telephone services are afraid to let her use their phones. A
local politician who allowed her access to his telephone
before her imprisonment has since moved away. She also asked
for outside support to provide a tape recorder, which she
wants to use to record what officials tell her to make a
record of any refusal to grant appropriate rights. Also, she
has said that recording authorities sometimes prompts them to
do the right thing.


9. (C) Comment: Su Su Nway is quiet, controlled and
straightforward, but she exudes the confidence of someone
committed to a cause and prepared to accept the potentially
brutal consequences of her advocacy. International attention
to her case (ref A),her detailed knowledge of her own legal
rights and insistence that they be honored, and her readiness
to take on violators forced the GOB to handle Su Su Nway
differently from other political activists. They may
continue to allow her more space to operate than others, but
Su Su Nway is determined to test those limits. If she can
obtain a hand-phone and tape recorder, she plans to use them
to help hold authorities accountable for their actions and
continue her fight for real change from within. End comment.
STOLTZ