3. INCREASE OF POLITICALLY MOTIVATED ARRESTS AND IMPRISONMENT Despite a series of prisoner releases in Myanmar, the last two years have seen a hardening in the authorities’ attitude to human rights defenders, peaceful activists and those critical of the government. As these critics became more vocal, the authorities have increasingly resorted to arrest, detention, prosecution and imprisonment to target student protesters, political activists, media workers and human rights defenders, in particular land and labour activists. The resumption of politically motivated arrests in 2014 prompted Amnesty International to conduct in-depth research on new cases of arbitrary arrests, detention and imprisonment. Our findings reveal that the Myanmar authorities have over the past two years increasingly used politically motivated detention and imprisonment in a way which has weakened human rights defenders and activist organizations and movements and instilled a climate of fear among them. Amnesty International’s research also indicates that sentences are, for the most part, longer in duration than those handed down at the beginning of the Thein Sein administration. In some notable cases the authorities have also apparently sought to appease Buddhist nationalist groups through arrests and harassment of those speaking out for religious tolerance. 3.1 RESURGENCE OF LENGTHY DETENTION AND IMPRISONMENT Prison sentences of several years or even decades were a common feature of political imprisonment in Myanmar under former military governments. Although human rights defenders and activists continued to be charged in the early years of the Thein Sein administration, they tended to face fewer charges, and were often given shorter sentences. NEW EXPRESSION MEETS OLD REPRESSION ENDING THE CYCLE OF POLITICAL ARRESTS AND IMPRISONMENT IN MYANMAR Amnesty International 16