Mar 25. 2008 (DVB), A metta chanting campaign initiated by All-Burmese Monks Alliance leader U Gambira at Insein prison has been spreading to other prison wards, the monk's sister said.

U Gambira's sister Ma Khin Thu Htay said that detainees from different parts of the prison had joined the campaign.

"U Gambira said all the inmates who are being held in the main prison ward, the special detention area and also the women detainees have been chanting metta," Khin Thu Htay said.

Khin Thu Htay said the campaign was the reason prison authorities put U Gambira into solitary confinement on 14 March.

"We are all Buddhist people and it is not a strange thing for us when a monk chants metta. Putting him into solitary confinement for that is an unacceptable act and it makes our country look really bad."

U Gambira’s last scheduled court appointment at Hlaing township court last week did not take place and his remand has been extended for another week.

U Gambira was arrested by government authorities in Magwe division’s Sintgaing township on 4 November 2007 for his role in instigating public protests in September.

Reporting by Aye Nai