Amnesty International urged the French Presidency of the European Union to take the opportunity offered by the Asem summit (Asia-Europe Meeting, an intergovernmental forum between Asia and Europe) of Peking, to sit at a table with the delegates of the Military Junta of Myanmar and express concern for the bad state in which human rights are in the country. In a letter to the French Presidency, Amnesty International stated that, along with other issues regarding human rights in Asia, "the EU should particularly do something for the situation in Myanmar, where about 2100 political prisoners are currently held". According to the EU’s guidelines on human rights defenders, the French Presidency should take the opportunity "to enquire about these prisoners, many of whom risk being tortured". In its letter, Amnesty International provided information on some "urgent cases", such as that of Myo Yang Naung Thein, who might be sentenced within three weeks. Arrested in December 2007 for filming the protests of two months earlier, after his arrest he got paralysed from the waist down, probably because of the tortures he underwent during the interrogations. Amnesty International urged the French Presidency to ask for "his unconditional release".” “
