“If a pig in prison dies, there will be many reports. But if a person in prison dies, it can send just a letter. People’s lives are worth only one piece of copy paper worth five kyats” is a thought for human existence.
Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the rule of law has been worse and there have been many arbitrary arrests. After the arrest, the people continue to suffer human rights violations in prison.
The military junta arrests people of all classes and sends those people to the nearest police station and custody, without being able to prove that the people have committed any crime.
Following that, the junta makes the law on the tip of their mouths and unjustly prosecutes arrested people limitlessly. Currently, political prisoners in prisons are being unlawfully killed by the military junta.
From 2021 February 1 to 2024 March 24, 26,244 people were arrested by the military junta, and among them, 20,263 people were detained in prisons. The number of political prisoners who have been sentenced to death has reached 166 according to the statistics of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Among the prisons where political prisoners were oppressed after the military coup, Daik-U prison in Nyaung Lay Pin Township, Bago Region, is becoming the worst, with up to 14 political prisoners who died in Daik-U Prison in almost a year from May 2023 to March 2024.
“In history, Thayarwati Prison was notorious. Similarly, Insein, Obo and Myingan prisons followed that. However, if pointing to the worst prison in 2023-2024, Daik-U Prison is number one,” said Ko Thaik Tun Oo, a member of the Steering Committee of the Myanmar Political Prisoners’ Network.
According to the report of the Myanmar Political Prisoners’ Network, after 37 prisoners were taken out of Daik-U prison on June 27, 2023, those prisoners lost contact, and 10 of them were killed.
Similarly, due to inadequate medical care in Daik-U Prison, Aung Soe Moe (b) Ko Mae Lone died on July 16, 2023, and U Maung Dee, a parliament member of Waw Township, died on July 17, 2023.
In 2024 January and February, two political prisoners who were sentenced to long prison terms died again. One of the two deaths was U Khin Soe, a political prisoner who died on January 6 and who was arrested by the military junta because they could not arrest his son.
“He was arrested by the military because his son was not arrested. It is known in advance that his health was bad in prison, but he died because he was not allowed to get help,” said a person close to the family.
U Aye Win, a 68-year-old political prisoner, was also prosecuted by the military junta under criminal sections 505 and 124 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison. He died in Daik-U prison on 2024 February 9, due to lack of medical treatment in the prison.
Former political prisoners who have been released said that whatever happens from a headache to an emergency health situation in prison, prisoners are given only one type of paracetamol and receive only 800 Myanmar kyats per month for medical treatment.
Political prisoner, Ko Yar Shin, died because he received no emergency medical treatment in the Kyaikmaraw prison, on 2024 January 12, and Ko Pyae Phyo Aung, a political prisoner, died due to a wrong injection by the prison hospital doctor on 2024 January 16. During a week, 2 political prisoners died in the Kyaikmaraw prison of Mon State.
U Tun Kyi, a member of the Myanmar Political Prisoners’ Network, said that the death of the two political prisoners from Kyaikmaraw prison was the result of the military junta.
“Both of them did not have an immediate life-threatening illness. The rice served to prisoners is a kind of rice that dogs and pigs will not eat. They (authorities) also take a cut of the prison food parcels. There are prisoner patients who need to take medicine regularly. Medicines do not arrive to those prisoners on time. The military junta is killing political prisoners in prison because they don’t die during interrogation,” said U Tun Kyi, a member of the Myanmar Political Prisoners’ Network.
Former political prisoners criticized the military junta that the prison authorities follow only the junta’s unjust instructions and orders, ignoring the rights of prisoners even though using the prison manual. That’s why they look like licensed butchers and murderers.
The death of political prisoners in Kyaikmaraw prison is due to unclean water, unsanitary accommodation, lack of emergency medical treatment, and inadequate medicine.
“Currently, prisoners are seriously suffering from itchiness and pain in the Kyaikmaraw prison,” said a source in the prison.
Similarly, all the prisoners in Myingyan prison are suffering from dysentery and diarrhea due to drinking water with lead and insufficient shower water.
“What a high level of lead in water, when we were in Myingyan prison, we had to assemble our water purifiers, and the stones in the water purifiers turned lead-colored,” said a former political prisoner released from Myingyan Prison.
According to health doctors, if the amount of lead in drinking water is high, it can cause brain and kidney damage and even death.
Ma Yin Moe, a political prisoner who was sentenced to 6 years in Myingyan Prison, died on February 4, 2024, due to kidney failure while receiving medical treatment after being transferred to Mandalay Obo Prison in bad health.
Not only drinking water is inconvenient in prisons across Myanmar, but also the food served to the prisoners is getting worse day by day.
“Four pieces of meal curry per week are served to a prisoner. Even if it’s four pieces of chicken, only bones are served. It’s not enough at all. Sometimes the meals are bad. Some prisoners cannot eat. So, prisoners have to buy everything from onions to tomatoes, and it’s like we’re in prison at our own expense,” said a person who visits the prison.
The food served in Yangon’s Insein Prison is worse than before. Stir-fried water Spanish usually served in prison is in a state of garbage and grass. Two eggs per prisoner for a day were served before, but now one egg per prisoner is served and bean soup like washing hand water is served.
The prison authorities under the junta appoint criminal prisoners as a position of Tan See (the head prisoner of a cell block) and disciplinary clerks and ask them to oppress political prisoners.
Political prisoners are kept together with criminal prisoners in Insein Prison and Tharawati Prison. In addition, family members of political prisoners said that political prisoners are paying the prison authorities from 150,000 kyats to 500,000 kyats in order not to work.
Therefore, when the family members send prison visits to the prisoners every month, they have to pay extra money for the prison staff.
“Female political prisoners over 60 years old are forced to do farming and knitting. Knitting is also difficult for elderly prisoners because they have to focus it with their eyes. Prisoners do what they are forced to do the whole day. Even women of mother’s age are forced to do it,” said Ko Thaik Tun Oo, a member of the Myanmar Political Prisoners’ Network.
In the conditions of prisons, it is included that the prison authorities discriminate against female political prisoners and ask Tan See to oppress those prisoners as they wish, by appointing criminal prisoners as Tan See who are head prisoners of a cell block.
“When the prison authorities want to oppress the prisoners, they don’t do it themselves, but they ask their appointees to do it. It is going to swear and oppress prisoners,” said a person close to Myingyan prison.
The addition of the rule of prisoner to prisoner in the Prison Manual causes worse for political prisoners.
Currently, in addition to the oppression of female political prisoners, sexual assaults are also openly committed in prisons.
Prison staff are forcing political prisoners to take off their clothes in public in front of the dormitory on their way to and from the trial, and they are inspecting prisoners forced naked bodies, searching the genitals of women, and putting their hands into the anus.
“When there is a trial day, they (prisoners) are examined twice a day when they come out and in the prison. Even during the menstruation period, they (prison staff) take off their underwear and check them. Some of them do not accept it. When they submit not to be examined like this, the staff swear and oppress them,” said a person close to Maubin Prison.
Mandalay Obo Prison has also installed CCTV cameras in the women’s dormitories for security reasons, and some of which can be set up for women’s bathing areas and their activities.
Then, the male staff of the prison authorities are reportedly watching the CCTV Record under the pretext that there is a problem inside the prison.
According to the report of the Myanmar Political Prisoners’ Network, 21 political prisoners died because they did not receive adequate medical treatment in prison from 2023 to January 27, 2024.
Human rights activists say that the military junta does not even give basic rights to and treats political prisoners like enemies, and when justice is served, they will inevitably be punished for their commitments.
“People are arrested under various charges. Then those people are sent to prisons. The food served to prisoners is bad, and there is no medical care for prisoners. Those prisoners are people that they take responsibility for. Now they (junta) are acting as if they wish because those prisoners are in their hands. When transitional justice is brought in, they will inevitably face punishments,” said a human rights activist.
The officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have met with the military regime at least twice to request access to prisons in Myanmar, but they have not been granted access to the prisons until now. Therefore, there was nothing special about the prisoners who were subjected to human rights violations.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been criticized for human rights violations in prisons since the previous military regime. Since the beginning of the COVID pandemic in 2020, they have not been able to access prisons until today.
The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission had been making progress on human rights violations in prisons before the military coup, but now the ICRC organization as well as this commission seem to be silent.
The Myanmar National Human Rights Commission is currently speaking as a shield of the regime on international platforms about the military regime’s human rights violations, instead of suggesting pressure on the military regime by visiting and inspecting prisons and courts.
Last March 2023, a female political prisoner was beaten to humiliation by male prison staff in the women’s dormitory of Tharayawati Prison. This was reported by the media, so human rights groups were allowed access to prisons.
However, these groups only asked prisoners questions about whether there were any bans on going to toilets during the inspection, according to people close to the prison.
“What we have to say on the side of prisoners is whether human rights are not to have a bowel movement, but to be allowed to have a bowel movement is human rights, and the rest is not human rights,” said a former political prisoner who was released from Thayarwati prison.