Some 34 political prisoners died in navy junta’s prisons throughout Myanmar in 2023, with 18 killed inside jails and 16 others dying because of an absence of medical remedy, a human rights monitoring group stated Tuesday.
The usage of torture in opposition to inmates has elevated within the wake of the navy’s February 2021 coup d’état, with some political prisoners killed after being accused of escape throughout switch to different detention facilities, in keeping with the Myanmar Political Prisoners Community and the Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners.
A report issued by the Myanmar Political Prisoners Community on Dec. 31, 2023, primarily based its findings on inmate casualty numbers in Myanmar’s most infamous jails in Pathein, Daik-U, Myingyan, Monywa, Magway, Tharyarwady, Insein and Kalay townships.
Thike Tun Oo, a member of the group’s main committee, advised Radio Free Asia that the ruling junta has stepped up its oppression of political prisoners because it loses floor to resistance forces all through the nation.
“Whereas the navy council is being defeated within the battles, they’ve seen prisons as battlegrounds, they usually oppressed political prisoners increasingly more in 2023,” he stated.
Former rapper
San Linn San, a 29-year-old former rapper and singer, was one of many prisoners who died from an absence of correct medical remedy.
After the February 2021 coup, he left the leisure business to take part in numerous anti-regime actions, and joined a insurgent preventing group.
On Sept. 24, 2023, the junta stated it arrested San Linn San as a result of he was a member of the anti-regime Black Dragon Pressure in Pyapon in Ayeyarwady area. He was sentenced to loss of life in October as a result of the group was accused of killing native administers underneath the junta. He was later transferred to a jail in Pathein.
![ENG_BUR_PoliticalPrisoners_1092024.2.jpg A view of Pathein Prison in Myanmar's Ayeyarwady region, in an undated photo. (Citizen journalist)](https://i0.wp.com/www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/political-prisoners-01092024175243.html/eng_bur_politicalprisoners_1092024-2.jpg/@@images/6858522e-bb3b-457e-b773-106209a57009.jpeg?resize=622%2C350&ssl=1)
San Linn San needed to have surgical procedure for a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid deep inside his mind from being tortured at an interrogation heart, stated Ko Shine, an in depth household buddy. He continued to undergo from the situation whereas in jail and died there.
“When he suffered this critical damage, he was not allowed to go for medical therapies outdoors the jail,” Ko Shine stated. “His head was like a sponge.”
Myanmar’s Prisons Act of 1894 stipulates the best of inmates to acquire medical remedy at once.
Excessive fever
Cherry Win, a 23-year-old who opposed junta rule and was sentenced to 10 years in jail underneath the nation’s Counter-Terrorism Regulation, died on Dec. 21, 2023, whereas affected by a extreme fever as a result of she was not allowed to hunt outdoors medical remedy, in keeping with the sources with data of the scenario.
The younger girl’s home in Demoso township in Kayah state was burned down amid preventing between armed resistance teams by junta forces in mid-2021, forcing her and her household to flee to security, stated a relative who declined to be named for security causes.
Junta authorities arrested Cherry Win in Yangon simply earlier than she deliberate to go to Singapore for a job, and accused her of getting contact with anti-junta Individuals’s Protection Forces.
“We didn’t find out about her loss of life instantly,” the relative stated. “We bought this information from RFA radio about 10 days after her loss of life. It was complicated for us as a result of we didn’t see her lifeless physique, and [we believed that] the navy council might need burned it.”
A lawyer advised RFA on situation of anonymity that the junta doesn’t inform members of the family about prisoner deaths, or present their our bodies to them, because the authorities are required to do.
“Nobody can say what the regulation is at current as a result of the navy council has ignored legal guidelines and laws,” he stated.
An official on the Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners, a Thailand-based prisoner monitoring group, who was imprisoned by the junta in Myanmar, advised RFA on situation of anonymity that he and others have been tortured at an interrogation heart.
“We felt aid as soon as we have been in jail, and I believed I might not die within the jail as a result of I used to be liberated from the torture,” he stated. “Nevertheless, some prisoners have been reportedly killed outdoors the jail.”
RFA couldn’t attain officers at Myanmar’s Jail Division for remark.
Kyaw Zaw, spokesman for the President’s Workplace underneath the shadow Nationwide Unity Authorities, stated officers try to take authorized motion in opposition to these liable for the deaths of political prisoners which have occurred throughout the navy regime.
As of Tuesday, the junta had arrested almost 25,800 folks and detained over 19,900 because the 2021 coup, in keeping with the Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners.
Translated by Aung Naing for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.