As UN Envoy Ibrahim Gambari begins his current visit to Burma today, it is important to remind him that 2,000 prisoners of conscience remain behind bars. According to the Burma Campaign UK today, prisoners live in 8 by 12 foot cells, and are currently experiencing a worsening of conditions - the denial of medical treatment, food supplies from families and exercise periods.
Gambari should give the regime a deadline, as I called for in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend: release the political prisoners, before Ban Ki-moon visits Burma, or face the consequences: universal arms embargo, targeted financial sanctions, a credentials challenge at the UN, and a referral to the International Criminal Court.
As Wai Hnin, a campaigner with the Burma Campaign UK and herself the daughter of a prominent political prisoner, says:
The United Nations Security Council has said the political prisoners should be released, and Gambari and Ban Ki-Moon must make that happen. We have had 20 years of envoys going back and forth with nothing to show for it. It is time they delivered concrete results.
