by Salai Pi Pi | New Delhi (Mizzima) - "At first, I worried that I would never see my father again," reflects Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, daughter of Mya Aye, a leader of the 88 generation students and a political prisoner.
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"Whenever I think about it, I feel angry with the military regime. Because of their uselessness and baseless laws, innocent people are in trouble," she laments.
Mya Aye is among the approximately 300 political prisoners recently sentenced to up to 68 years incarceration inside military ruled Burma.
The frustration of Wai Hnin over the government's sentencing has been echoed in the outcry from the international community, though the calls have so far yielded no result.
Moreover, the regime recently shifted political activists to different camps in remote areas of Burma, the move making it ever more difficult for bereaved family members to regularly meet with detained political activists.
Mya Aye himself was last month sentenced to 65 years imprisonment and moved to a detention center in Loikaw in Kayah (Karenni) state, eastern Burma.
On December 4, Wai Hnin's mother, Sandar Win, and 7 year-old sister traveled to Loikaw and were allowed to briefly meet with the detained activist on Wednesday.
"I felt so tired after the 24-hour long round trip to the prison camp from here (Rangoon). Moreover, the problem is I also took my seven-year old daughter to the prison camp," Sandar Win says.
Both made the day-long trek to be allowed to speak with the imprisoned husband and father for but a mere 45 minutes.
She says that at present, there is no medical staff to take care of prisoners in the detention center.
"I am so worried that if my husband is not feeling well, the prison authorities will just let him suffer without giving medication," frets Sandar Win.
On Tuesday, Wai Hnin, along with Khun Sai, himself a former political prisoner, briefed British members of parliament on the situation of Burmese political prisoners and their families during a parliamentary meeting.
She said that her father was only allowed one hour per day to take a walk inside the camp, the entire time chained by both his hands and legs.
Wai Hnin left Burma in 2006 as she felt that there was no freedom in pursuing her further studies in universities in the country.
"Whenever I went to school, Burmese spies always followed me. I didn't feel free to study," she claims.
Being a relative of a political activist, she felt that she lost even the few opportunities that other people enjoy in Burma.
"We have lost our human rights in Burma. Even after graduation, it was not possible to work in government departments. Also, nobody was willing to give me a job because I was a daughter of a political activist," she explains.
Mya Aye was first arrested in 1989, when Wai Hnin was a five-month old baby girl, for his active involvement in the aftermath of the 1988 people's uprising that brought down the former military regime of General Ne Win. Her father was subsequently released in 1996, before again being arrested last year.
Sandrar Win says, "I don't feel anything on the detention of my husband, his imprisonment is not strange to us. I don't even regret his situation because he is being detained for doing good things for the people"
"I will also encourage him to keep on with his work for his movement and try to meet him wherever he may be held," she adds.
Wai Hnin recalls the tense days and sleepless nights she experienced on a daily basis in military ruled Burma before her father was rearrested.
"Even after he was released [in 1996], nearly the whole time I was worried that the authorities would knock on the door and pick up my father again," she remembers.
Eventually Mya Aye's worst fears were proven true. The Burmese regime, last year, again arrested her father along with several other leaders from the 88 generation students group, including Min Ko Naing, for staging a peaceful march in August against the fuel price hike that was followed by the Buddhist monk-led protests of September 2007.
Yet, amidst the misery, Wai Hnin takes pride in her father being detained in prison for the cause of freedom in Burma.
"I am proud of him for what he has done and the way he has sacrificed his life for the sake of [the Burmese] people and freedom," says Wai Hnin.
Wai Hnin has been granted asylum in the UK and says she will lobby the international community and United Nations, through Burma Campaign UK, to push the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners and for political reform inside Burma.
Because of the heavy-handed rule of Burma's generals, Wai Hnin has spent only nine of her 19 years with her father, though she now never gives up hope of his eventual release and expects to see him again in future.
"I am looking forward to seeing him again," proclaims a defiant Wai Hnin.
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