Dear Ban Ki-moon, I am writing to you today to urge you to make the release of Burma’s political prisoners your top priority. Burma’s most well known political prisoner, democracy leader and Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has now spent over 14 years under arrest yet she has committed no crime. She has the respect and support of people across Burma and throughout the world for her peaceful resistance in the face of oppression. Aung San Suu Kyi is just one of 2,130 political prisoners under arrest in Burma today. These prisoners have committed no crime, they are imprisoned for peacefully calling for democracy and human rights in Burma. There can be no progress in Burma while Aung San Suu Kyi and 2,130 other political prisoners are not free. In 2007, following the brutal suppression of peaceful protests in Burma, your own special advisor Ibrahim Gambari was given assurances that arrests of political activists would end. Despite this there are now almost double the number of political prisoners that there were before the uprising. Torture and mistreatment are endemic in Burma’s jails, where many inmates are kept in their cells 24 hours a day, given inadequate food, and the International Committee of the Red Cross is denied access. I am deeply concerned that political prisoners are increasingly being denied access to medical treatment. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you. CC: All members of the UN Security Council