Myanmar’s current military junta is by far the most homicidal in the country’s history, newly released data confirms.
In the three years and five months since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup, 1,853 people who were detained by the junta, including children, died while in the custody of its personnel, a report by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a research and advocacy group, notes.
It found that a rising number of the deaths were the result of bullets and that the unarmed prisoners who were shot dead were said by their captors to be attempting to escape.
The number of people dying while in the current junta’s custody is seven times higher than the number who died in custody under successive regimes during the 22 years after the 1988 uprising, which was about 250 in total. Most of them died from lack of healthcare and sickening prison conditions.
The number has risen from about 10 a year to about 600 a year, the data shows.
Because the association only includes deaths that it has verified, its total for the current junta is likely below the real number, it says.
Min Aung Hlaing’s regime has also been unapologetic about the torture and rape of prisoners, as well as other severe violations of human rights that, in many cases, are crimes against humanity, the association says. It has been exiled and no longer has an office in Yangon.
The association’s verified data shows that the junta has imprisoned 26,954 people for political reasons since the coup. Before the 2021 coup, the association had the names of about 3,500 political prisoners in its database. Many of these verified political prisoners were detained after protesting during the 1988 uprising. Its data shows that the number of people jailed for political reasons since the 2021 coup is already more than 700 percent higher than it was in the four decades that preceded the coup.
Min Aung Hlaing’s junta has killed 5,351 civilians as of June 30 this year, the association’s latest verified data shows. (The 1,853 people who died in custody are included in this number.)
The regime is also lengthening prison terms and sentencing prisoners to death, the report “No Return Home” notes.
Most of the detainees killed died outside the formal prison system. For example, many died while being used as human shields. Inside the formal system, 97 were killed in prisons, 131 at military interrogation centers and 30 at police stations, “No Return Home” says.
Most of the detainees killed, 1,651, were men, while 114 were women. The report says 88 children were killed while detained, including a two-year-old detainee and another who was five. Another 63 prisoners died because they were denied medical care, the report says.
It verified detainee deaths at 26 prisons, with Yangon’s Insein Prison leading the way with 31. Bago Region’s Daik-U Prison was second with 17 deaths and Sagaing Region’s Kale Prison was third with five.
The junta resumed executions of political prisoners in July 2022, for the first time since 1976, with four in one weekend at Insein Prison. They were former National League For Democracy lawmaker Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw, veteran democracy activist Ko Jimmy, Ko Hla Myo Aung and Ko Aung Thura Zaw.
They had been sentenced to death the previous January by a military tribunal.
Junta soldiers remain more likely to shoot prisoners dead. In February of this year, for example, former political prisoners Nobel Aye and Lay Kwin were arrested at a junta checkpoint for alleged possession of weapons while returning from a hearing.
Junta personnel said they were shot while trying to escape, but their bodies were never returned to their families.
Since the coup, the number of prisoners killed while in the custody of junta personnel peaked at 631 in 2022. It dropped slightly the next year to 610. In the first year of the coup, 324 detainees were killed while in the custody of junta personnel. The association has already verified that 288 detainees died while in the custody of junta personnel in the first six months of this year.
These numbers do not include unverified deaths in custody. The association uses an internationally recognized system for verifying data, which members describe as “rigorous.”
The killing of prisoners by junta personnel is “deliberate” and the goal is to “instill fear,” the association said.
Global indifference to crimes against humanity in Myanmar emboldens the junta.
“No Return Home” asks the international community to do something.
