Dec 24, 2007 (DVB), Three people currently being held in Insein prison have been put in solitary confinement for staging a hunger strike, according to a family member of one of the detainees.

Commodity price protestor Htin Kyaw has been on hunger strike since the end of November, and was admitted to hospital for a short time earlier this month.

Private tutor and Human Rights Defenders and Promoters network member Myo Thant (also known as John Naw Thar) and university student Zin Lin Aung have also been refusing food.

Myo Thant says he will not even be drinking coffee from 25 December, according to his sister Ma Thi Thi Htun, who recently visited him.

Htin Kyaw began his hunger strike to call for the release of all political prisoners.

The authorities have so far given no public response to the hunger strike.

Reporting by Aye Nai