This campaign has now closed
PoC offers humanitarian grants to Burmese prisoners of conscience. Grants are given to individuals in Burma to help them and their families purchase food and other basic necessities, such as travel and medical costs. The average PoC grant for a Burmese prisoner of conscience is £200.
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Situation
The situation in Burma dramatically worsened at the end of August 2007. Huge protests took place in the cities of Rangoon and Mandalay after the government raised fuel prices by nearly 500%. Two years on from the Saffron Revolution, arrests and brutal sentences continue. In the last year the number of political prisoners languishing in Burma's prisons has doubled to more than 2,000. In November 2008, the military regime sentenced 14 leading democracy activists in Burma to 65 years in prison. Those sentenced were all prominent members of the '88 Generation Students group, which led the peaceful demonstrations in September 2007. In total, at least 215 Burmese political activists were sentenced to long prison terms as a result of their non-violent political opposition. These sentences were some of the harshest punishments handed out by the regime in over a decade. The regime has condemned the activists it fears the most to a lifetime in prison. In addition, the Burmese authorities have systematically transferred political prisoners to prisons all around the country, far from their families. This is just another form of psychological torture used by the regime. It will take a lot of time, money and effort for their families to visit and provide essential food and medicine. This is exhausting for them, at an already difficult time. Many of the prisons in the remoter border areas have high rates of malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS and some of the prisons have no prison hospital ward or doctor. Burma's Junta regime has a long history of human rights violations. In the past, the Junta have used excessive force against peaceful demonstrators. They have been known to torture their detainees by electric shocks, burnings, beatings and the iron rod. The recent arrest and trial of Aung San Suu Kyi did nothing to suppress our fears for her or her compatriots. Now, more than ever, we need help to support prisoners of conscience in Burma.