Political prisoners in Mandalay’s notorious Myingyan Prison say that torture and other abuses committed by jailers have been increasing since the third week of May.
They report being denied medical treatment for injuries sustained in interrogation beatings that began on May 21.
“Political prisoners are taken to the prison governor’s office and beaten for minor infringements. Over 70 political prisoners have suffered this treatment since May 21,” said Ko Shin Thant, a member of the anti-coup protest committee for Monywa in Sagaing Region.
Ko Shin Thant also chairs the Monywa University of Economics Students Union and spent time as a political detainee for his opposition to the February 2021 military coup.
“I was informed that every political prisoner who protests inside the prison, stands up for their rights, or makes even a minor transgression is beaten in the governor’s office, blindfolded with their hands handcuffed,” he said. “Some are doused with water and shocked with stun guns.”
Thirteen political detainees at Mingyan Prison were reportedly taken to be tortured at the Light Infantry Battalion 15 base in Myingyan between May 21 and 24.
“They returned with extensive injuries including teeth knocked out and cuts across their bodies,” a local source with knowledge of the matter said. “But jailers refused to give them medical treatment and also barred their families from sending food, medicine and other necessities.”
The political prisoners were brought back to Myingyan Prison on May 29, but have been placed in solitary confinement. One of them, Myingyan resident Ko Soe Yazar Tun Lwin, is at risk of death from a beating that left deep cuts on his body and knocked his teeth out.
Fellow political detainees in Myingyan Prison who staged a hunger strike in protest at the torture were also subjected to beatings.
Anti-junta coordination committees in Mandalay and Monywa called the beatings crimes against humanity, citing Article 7 of the Rome Statute. They said they were documenting the crimes and will urge the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other international agencies to intervene.
Prisoners of conscience have reported increasing abuse by jailers after 10 political detainees escaped from Taungoo Prison in Bago Region on May 18. Abuse including torture has spiked in prisons by order of the junta-controlled Correctional Department, according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Ko Shin Thant said: “We doubt the ICRC can do anything to stop torture and grave human rights violations in prisons. But the ICRC should do more to make the world aware that the regime has denied its request for prison visits, and also publicize what’s happening inside Myanmar prisons. ICRC must increase the pressure [to halt the torture].”
Myingyan Prison holds around 200 political prisoners, including ousted National League for Democracy Sagaing chief minister Dr. Myint Naing and others from Mandalay, Monywa and Taungtha. Political prisoners from Mandalay’s Obo Prison and Monywa Prison were moved to Myingyan in July last year.
Myingyan Prison is notorious as a torture site for political prisoners detained by the previous junta regime in the 1990s.
According to AAPP, 23,299 people have been detained since the coup and 18,968 remain in detention, 6,330 of whom are in jail as of June 9. Junta courts have handed death sentences to 158 people for opposing military rule, 116 of whom are being held in prison while 42 are still free.
