June 2008
This is a long-term case, unlikely to be resolved soon, but we are determined to keep sending letters.
. We update the page whenever more is learned.

Senior General Than Shwe
Chairman
State Peace and Development Council
Naypyitaw
Union of Myanmar (Burma)

Dear General,

I urge you to order the release of Myo Min Zaw.

He was a student arrested in 1998 for peaceful political activity. He was sentenced to 38 years in prison, later increased to 52.

I believe that he was moved from Pathein Prison to Mandalay and then to Puta O in Kachin State.

More than 11 years of his life have been wasted. Please set him free.

Sincerely,

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We suggest writing Union of Myanmar (Burma) in the address because the government that took power in 1989 changed the country's name from Union of Burma to Union of Myanmar. But the USA and its postal service still use "Burma" (as does the democratic opposition in the country), so omitting that on the envelope could delay delivery.
________________________________________

Story of Myo Min Zaw, based on Amnesty International documents and on the long experience of AI USA group 182 in Greenville, S.C.:

Myo Min Zaw, born about 1978, was a second-year student of English. He was involved in the large-scale student demonstrations of 1996. The military sought him but he managed to evade arrest. In 1997 he joined the central organizing committee of the All-Burma Student Union (ABSFU). Using the alias of Moe Hein Aung, in July 1998 he founded the Student and Youth Unity Front. Between June and September 1998, more than 300 students were arrested when they staged small demonstrations to protest the human rights situation and the poor quality of education. Before these demonstrations, letters appealing to the public for support and signed by "Moe Hein Aung" were widely distributed in Yangon (Rangoon) and were used prominently by the demonstrating students.
On September 14, 1998, Myo Min Zaw was arrested in the street and accused of agitating unrest. He was sentenced to 38 years, later increased to 52.
He was at first in the notorious Insein Prison in Yangon. In April and May 1999, just before an attempt by the International Committee of the Red Cross to investigate Burma's prison conditions, the military authorities secretly transferred hundreds of political prisoners from Insein to remote prisons around the country; the families of the transferred prisoners were not told, and no official news was released. Myo Min Zaw was transferred to Pathein Prison.
After a hunger strike in 2003 calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, he was transferred with 28 others from Pathein to Mandalay Prison. up in the middle of the country. When he arrived he was hooded, and beaten at the prison gate and then in the cell, with prison service batons. He was held for one month in shackles and solitary confinement, then put in a cell with others. Later he was transferred to Puta O prison in Kachin State — the remote north of Burma — making it even more impossible for his family in Rangoon to bring him food and medical assistance.
Myo Min Zaw was adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in 1999, and his case was assigned to USA groups 182 (Greenville, South Carolina) and 9/280 (Manhattan, New York), and to groups in Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

Burma background
The elected government was overthrown by General Ne Win in 1962, and since then it has been ruled by a military regime, now called the State Peace and Development Council. In a 1990 election the National League for Democracy won 82 percent of seats (and other opposition parties won most of the rest, leaving the regime with 2%), even though the NLD's presidential candidate Aung San Suu Kyi was in house arrest and most of its other leaders in prison. The military refused to accept the result, and Suu Kyi has been in house arrest for most of the years since then, the only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner. The regime wages wars against the country's ethnic minorities. In the words of one activist, it "sells the teak forests to foreign companies for bullets to kill the tribes that live in them."

Do letters to Burma do any good?
Here (slightly shortened) is a March 2010 message from Amnesty International's Myanmar campaigner Haider Kikabhoy to Canadian members who had asked this question.

We're constantly being told by the families of POCs [prisoners of conscience], and Burmese activists who are campaigning for their friends' release, both privately and publicly (such as in regular Burma stakeholder meetings organised by the British Foreign Office), how Amnesty's steadfast letting-writing does make a difference to POCs' lives.
The consistent and concentrated letter-writing from across the Amnesty movement makes it clear to the Myanmar authorities that we're watching their actions and that the POCs aren't forgotten. The stream of appeals that members send to the SPDC maintains pressure on the authorities to not torture or mis-treat detainees. Although we're not going to secure everyone's release tomorrow, we're often encouraged and, indeed, prodded, by the families of POCs, and Burmese activists, to keep up and increase our work because the continued attention we give to POCs often brings them some protection, influencing the authorities to treat them less harshly (e.g. by giving better medical care and increased access to their families, or reducing restrictions on their on movement in prison). Improved conditions for POCs won't last if the pressure isn't maintained, which is why we need Amnesty's time-honoured letter-writing campaigns.
Second, the loyal commitment members show in fighting for the freedoms of POCs is a source of great moral support to POCs and their families. The father of Zaw Htet Ko Ko carries solidarity letters he receives from AI members in his wallet. He calls the letters "my gold". He's overwhelmed by the amount of greeting cards he received last Christmas (his letter-box would overflow if he didn't clear it everyday). A thank you message from him is attached below. U Win Htein's son, who lives in the US, is also thankful for the messages of support he receives from AI members.
Third, our letter-writing campaigns have actually helped to bring about the release of POCs. And that kind of success is the result of a division of labour, a combination of efforts and supreme teamwork from across the AI movement.
AI Canada members aren't working on their own, as there are always strangers/fellow activists in other parts of the world who are campaigning with them for the very same hopes over the long haul. That to me is the beauty of Amnesty, that it can mobilise common outrage at human rights violations, a shared sense of justice, goodwill, and a desire to make progress, across the world, into a force for change.
The global AI membership works along with the International Secretariat as well as colleagues in New York, Geneva and Brussels to apply pressure on the right people, at the right time, to achieve what we want. The release of eight of the 16 POCs we've had in the Individuals Portfolio (since Sep 2008) is a good indication of what we can achieve if we work together over the long haul.

And a letter from Aung Myint, father of prisoner Zaw Htet Ko Ko, December 2009:

Dear AI members (all over the world)
Merry Christmas to you!
Greetings to you from the Netherlands and Kyauk phyu prison. Your supports soothe my grief and strengthen the spirit of my son. We are very very pleased with your huge amount of post cards and letters. I hope this year will be our real happy new year.