YANGON (AFP) — Myanmar's longest-serving political prisoner, journalist Win Tin, has been taken to a hospital where he was undergoing a hernia operation Friday, family members told AFP.
The 77-year-old was taken Tuesday to Yangon General Hospital, where family members said they had been allowed to visit him.
Win Tin has spent more than 18 years behind bars since his arrest in July 1989. He is serving a 20-year sentence for his writings and for being a senior member of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
UN rights investigator Paulo Sergio Pinheiro was allowed to meet Win Tin and other political prisoners at the notorious Insein prison during a visit last November.
At the time, the Brazilian diplomat described Win Tin as being in good spirits.
Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association said in a statement they were worried by Win Tin's hospitalisation.
"The military government's treatment of a sick old man is criminal. We are very worried about this operation," they said.
Win Tin was a close aide to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winner who has spent most of the last 17 years under house arrest.
He was arrested in July 1989 during a crackdown on the pro-democracy movement, after civil unrest the year before was brutally suppressed.
The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 even though the NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990.
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