Myanmar should release aid workers: rights groups

[Coventina]

Source: AFP

BANGKOK (AFP) — Human rights groups on Friday urged Myanmar's government to release more than 20 aid workers they said were imprisoned for making donations to cyclone victims and insulting authorities a year ago.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the ruling junta had unfairly jailed at least 21 volunteers, including locally well-known comedian Zarganar, for helping some of the 2.4 million people affected by Cyclone Nargis, which hit May 2-3 last year.

The storm left 138,000 people dead or missing and, one year on, aid agencies estimate half a million people remain without adequate shelter.

"Donors and friends of the military government, such as China, should press Burma's generals to free activists like Zarganar who helped the survivors," said the organisation's deputy Asia director Elaine Pearson, using the country's former name.



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