At least five female inmates have been hospitalized and several dozen injured after officers at the junta’s infamous Daik-U Prison in Bago Region severely beat around 80 women political prisoners for protesting on Saturday.
Daik-U Prison is notorious for the torture and killing of political prisoners. Between late May and early July last year, 37 inmates including more than a dozen political detainees vanished after being pulled out from their cells in Daik-U.
The junta on Saturday transferred 100 male and 60 female inmates including 40 political prisoners from Kyaikmayaw Prison in Mon State to Daik-U, according to Political Prisoners Network Myanmar (PPNM).
During the transfer, the Daik-U Prison officials confiscated food and items that the women political prisoners had brought with them from Kyaikmayaw Prison.
When prisoners demanded the return of their confiscated items that afternoon, prison officers began beating them, PPNM said in its statement.
Prison officials led by chief officer Kyaw Zaya swore and threatened to rape the political inmates. Prison officers and other staff also used stun guns, rubber batons, wooden sticks, ropes and slingshots during the beating, PPNM reported, citing prison sources.
Another 50 women political prisoners who were not in the transferred party were injured in the mass assault. Five were taken to the prison hospital with severe head injuries.
“We are concerned about the injured inmates at the hospital as we know people have died due to shortages of medicines in prison hospitals,” PPNM founder Ko Thaik Tun Oo told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday.
Many of the female political inmates who were involved in the unrest are being held in solitary confinement, the PPNM said.
The political prisoners network has urged anti-regime groups to take effective action against prison officials who commit torture and other human rights violations against inmates.
