Political prisoners in Yangon’s Insein Prison have revealed the names of officials and staff there involved in torture and rights abuses of prisoners of conscience.
The list of 10 names includes Corrections Department director Myo Oo, prison warden Zaw Lwin Aung, staff officers Tun Win Htike and Ye Kyaw Thu and six other supervisors.
In their statement, political prisoners from the men’s section said that “about 5 percent of political prisoners arrested since the coup have been permanently disabled by the junta’s brutal torture.”
Those who took part in silent protests and hunger strikes in December 2021, in June and July, and in August this year after the junta executed four pro-democracy activists, were punished with severe beatings and solitary confinement. Some suffered bone fractures and head injuries, the statement said.
Female political prisoners were also subjected to beatings and rights abuses, it added. One had delivered a stillborn baby after being refused proper medical aid during labor.
It is a violation of prison regulations to beat any prisoner, said one lawyer. “Such beatings are not only against the law but also blatantly criminal,” said the lawyer, who asked for anonymity over fears of reprisal.
The statement said Insein jail currently holds more than 200 political prisoners aged under 20, about 10 in their 70s, and more than 1,000 in the 21-35 age group.
It called on the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) and international agencies to investigate the junta’s torture and killing of political prisoners. It added that political prisoners would continue to fight for their rights at the risk of their lives.
The statement also demanded an end to all forms of dictatorship including military dictatorship, cancellation of the military-drafted 2008 Constitution, the establishment of a federal, democratic Union, and the immediate release of political leaders, activists, students and others demanding democracy.
