Kolkata: The 34 Myanmarese prisoners lodged at the Presidency Correctional Home here have become victims of the change in India's policy towards Myanmar, a solidarity group formed to support the democracy movement in that country said here on Friday.

Drawing attention to the alleged mistreatment meted out to the prisoners, members of the Solidarity Committee for Burma's Freedom Fighters (SCBFF), formed by veteran freedom fighter Lakshmi Sehgal, said that their imprisonment amounted to a betrayal of the Myanmarese people's cause.

`Fight for democracy'

"These people are fighting for freedom and democracy in their country and there is no reason why India cannot be sympathetic towards their cause," said Ashok Mitra, economist and former Finance Minister of West Bengal who is a member of SCBFF. "There should be a countrywide movement in their support."

The prisoners, arrested in the Andaman Islands in February 1998 by Indian security forces as part of Operation Leech on the ground that they were foreign gunrunners, were actually Arakans and Karens fighting for the restoration of democracy, whom India had once supported, the SCBFF members claimed. The prisoners were kept in Port Blair before their case was transferred to Kolkata in 2006. "The Indian Government's policy of supporting what is probably the most cruel military junta in the world has not paid off, as the junta still supports the insurgents, has not curtailed drug trafficking and has concluded the gas treaty with China," said Nandita Haksar, a human rights lawyer working for Myanmarese refugees.

The prisoners were denied basic amenities such as toothbrush, toothpaste and soap, kept separately, some of them in isolation and they could not communicate with the authorities in the absence of interpreters, said Sujata Bhadra, a human rights activist.

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