Solidarity committee for 34 Burmese detainees in Kolkata

Kolkata, Mar 17 (UNI) Dr (Col) Lakshmi Sehgal of the former Indian National Army has formed a solidality committee to highlight the plights of 34 ''freedom fighters'' from Mayamar, detained in the Presidency jail here since 1998.

The Army had, however, said that these detainees belonged to a major gang of international gun runners who were supplying arms to insurgents in the North East.

The case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) but no chargesheet was filed for the last six and half years.

''The condition of these detainees is shocking. After their arrest, they were taken to Campbell Bay in the Andamans where they were deprived of even basic sanitation amenties,'' Dr Sehgal, who founded the Rani Jhansi regiment in the INA under Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, stated in a press release here today ''Then they were shifted to a jail in Port Blair, where they were denied even their rights as undertrials. They were further shifted to mosquito-infested, unhygienic barracks without adequate toilet and water,'' the 94-year-old practising doctor added.

''Now they are lodged in Presidency jail where once again they are being subjected to indignities not suffered even by convicted criminals,'' Dr Sehgal lamented.

''We believe these men to be freedom fighters.Their right to dignity must be safeguarded and they be respected as political prisoners,'' she said.

The detainees were mostly from Arakan and Karen in Myanmar and were involved in the struggle for democracy and human rights there.

In an open letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, many intellectuals, including film-maker Mrinal Sen and writer Mahasweta Devi, had appealed to the government to withdraw the order directing that the trial be conducted inside the jail instead of in open court.

The trial would begin on March 21 with the prosecution producing its witness.

UNI