Myanmar’s military coup leaders have been accused of murdering dozens of political prisoners and, in some cases, disguising their deaths as escape attempts.
The military removed political prisoners from Kyaiksakaw Prison in Daik-U Township, Bago Region on June 27 under the pretense of relocating them, but since then a total of 37, the Association of Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), an outstanding watch. group that documents civilian deaths, arrests and extrajudicial killings, said a statement this week.
Prison authorities repeatedly denied knowing the whereabouts of these prisoners when their families asked, he added.
The families of two of the “disappeared” detainees later received letters informing them of their deaths. The letters said that a transport vehicle was involved in an accident during the transfer and that the two victims were killed by security forces after trying to escape.
“Political prisoners removed from Daik-U prison continue to disappear without a trace. It is currently unknown whether they are alive or dead. These actions exceed prison procedures, along with the commission of the heinous crime of unjust torture and murder illegal. This is also a flagrant violation of the ASEAN Human Rights Convention,” the AAPP said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The accusations are the latest sign of the brutality of the administration established by top general Min Aung Hlaing since the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in early 2021. The generals have responded violently to the opposition to his government, razing and bombing civilians. villages and repress dissidents, protesters, politicians, artists and journalists, even as the armed forces suffer heavy losses from pro-democracy resistance fighters.
More than 23,800 people have been detained for their opposition to the coup, and almost 20,000 remain in detention, according to AAPP estimates.
Last year, generals executed four pro-democracy leaders and activists in the country’s first use of the death penalty in decades, sparking global condemnation. Dozens of political prisoners remain on death row.
Prison officials control crowds outside Insein prison during one of the regular amnesties for inmates. Inmates say the cells are overcrowded and the heat is stifling [File: Stringer/AFP]
Even if the inmates are not physically harmed, all have been denied family visits, leading to long periods of solitary confinement. The government has ignored pleas to resume visits, which were originally suspended due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
“Prisoners may not have had family contact for more than three years,” a former prisoner told Al Jazeera. His name is being withheld for fear of reprisals.
“For many people [behind bars]the survival strategy is meditation.”
Crowding in small spaces
The then president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, visited the capital Naypyidaw and held meetings with Min Aung Hlaing months after the coup, calling for the resumption of ICRC prison visits and more humanitarian access to conflict zones. The ICRC made another visit in June 2022 and repeated its requests, but to no avail.
Other serious problems include overcrowding, tensions with prison guards and lack of access to water and medical treatment.
“Prison officials often said, ‘We can kill you all.’ After that, we would release a statement saying that some prisoners died when they tried to escape during an accident,’” said Myo Thura, a 23-year-old activist from Yangon.
Myo Thura has been behind bars twice, with the longest period between March and October 2021 at Insein, a notorious prison in the center of Myanmar’s commercial capital Yangon, which has housed many more convicts since the coup .
There was a lot of tension between the prison officials and the detainees.
“The staff mistreat the prisoners and do not recognize our humanity. They force us to work, mainly manual labor in agriculture and even manual pumping of sewage, and constantly threaten to hurt or kill us,” Myo Thura told Al Jazeera.
In addition, overcrowding makes the environment suffocating, he added.
“Some of the ‘rooms’ in the prison had 200 or even 300 detainees together. The meditation center in Insein prison, where I was held for seven months, had almost 900 political prisoners.”
Myo Thura estimates that a typical prison room measures about 1,200 square feet (111 square meters) and can hold about 220 people. The largest is about 186 square meters (2,000 square feet) and holds nearly 300 detainees. Some of the rooms have fans, but this does not cool the environment.
The former prisoner told Al Jazeera that there was also a serious lack of medical support within the prison system.
“I met a woman in prison who had to have a mastectomy for breast cancer a couple of days after she was arrested and she couldn’t have the surgery and was trying to survive on medication,” the ex-prisoner said.
There are hundreds of Rohingya inside serving two- to three-year sentences for immigration offences, he added, and many women with 10-year sentences for trafficking, such as those who arrange for village children to go to work in homes or at tea. shops.
Three meals a day are brought to the cell blocks in buckets: congee (rice porridge) at 7am; rice and lentil soup about three hours later for lunch, and rice and chicken, fish, spinach soup or boiled egg, depending on the day of the week, for an early dinner at 3pm. Some manage to supplement their diet with condiments from the weekly shop or a packet from home.
The military has not provided an official figure for either the total number of prisoners or the number of detention centers in the country.
Myanmar’s generals, who have ruled the country since independence, have a long history of putting their people in some of the worst prisons in the world. But the severity of the persecution since February 2021 eclipses previous repressions, according to those who have followed successive years of military rule.
“Terrible situations of incommunicado”
The AAPP report, The Flow of Injustice (PDF), published on July 11, warned of a rapidly deteriorating system.
“Directed by their active role, supporting or associated with democracy, political prisoners suffer human rights violations committed by Sit-Tat. [the military]at every stage of the flow of injustice,” the report notes.
He added that political prisoners “experience violence and abuse at the point of detention, during interrogations, during transfers and in prison,” while poor living conditions in prisons worsen their struggles.
Former prisoners told AAPP that the interrogation centers were “a living hell”, with military interrogators using torture as “a matter of policy” to extract information, intimidate, coerce and penalize those who resist to the military government.
The report said at least 99 political prisoners had been killed during interrogation since the coup and warned that the real figure was likely much higher.
Extrajudicial killings of detainees did not occur to the same extent in the past, said Kyaw Soe Win, a veteran AAPP activist, even after the 1988 uprising, when supporters and student leaders be shot and imprisoned.
“Prisons have always been overcrowded [Myanmar]but now, prison officers are seen by [the military government] authorities as providing a good service if they commit human rights abuses,” he said.
The regime has yet to publicly comment on the AAPP’s accusations. In the past, its spokesman Zaw Min Tun has defended the execution of political prisoners, telling reporters: “This was justice for the people. These criminals were given a chance to defend themselves.”
Prison conditions in Myanmar were never up to international standards even before the coup, but now “the appalling prison detentions and [military’s] crimes have intensified,” said Manny Maung, Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch, whose findings support those of the AAPP.
Many former prisoners have reported severe beatings during arrest and detention, other ill-treatment and torture, he told Al Jazeera.
A sketch smuggled out of Insein Prison in June 2021 gave an idea of the conditions inside the prison. Many more people have been arrested since then [File: Reuters]
Human Rights Watch has documented a number of deaths in custody due to torture or denial of proper medical treatment, but these numbers barely scratch the surface, Maung warned.
“The military’s intent to maintain brutal detention environments is part of its ongoing assault on the Myanmar people that amounts to crimes against humanity.”
The worst happens outside the walls of the country’s traditional prisons, in the torture and interrogation centers. One such facility is in Shwepyithar, on the outskirts of Yangon, or Ye Kyi Aine, a former military detention center that resumed operations after the coup.
“Detention environments are opaque and the abuse reported in these types of facilities is appalling, including [reports] of torture and sexual violence. But these reports are not isolated to Yangon alone; everywhere there is intense resistance by anti-coup forces, beatings and torture are regularly reported,” Maung said.
Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), formed by ousted lawmakers, says the international community must do more to help the country’s political prisoners.
“It is crucial to emphasize that all prisoners, regardless of their circumstances, have the right to communicate with their families and receive the necessary medical and nutritional care,” said Dr. Sasa, Cabinet Minister of NUG.
“The Myanmar Army [government] he has not only shown a lack of respect for these fundamental human rights, he has violently violated them,” Sasa told Al Jazeera.
The minister stressed that political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, are also being tried in secret courts and subjected to “terrible situations of incommunicado” isolated from the outside world.
