Political prisoners in Sagaing’s Monywa Prison are staging a hunger strike after their possessions and food were seized during a special inspection on Friday, according to a strike committee.
Monywa People’s Strike Committee said in a statement that military and police intelligence personnel searched the prison and seized food, clothes, books and other possessions from political prisoners. The prisoners decided to stage a hunger strike after the prison authorities refused to demand the items be returned.
Currently, 14 political prisoners are on hunger strike and they have been moved to other cells, the committee said.
“The political prisoners plan to continue the strike one group after another until their demands are met,” a committee representative told The Irrawaddy.
The committee said the treatment of political prisoners is getting worse each day and has reached a critical state.
“They seized the prisoners’ medicines for conditions like diabetes. The conditions are horrible. A hunger strike is the last stage. It is very risky,” the representative said.
Other political prisoners are being held in solitary confinement with restricted food, he added.
U Thaik Tun Oo of the Myanmar Political Prisoners’ Network said: “Seizing the permitted possessions is a violation of the prisoner’s right.”
He said political prisoners are treated as military targets and oppressed by the regime.
“I want to tell the public not to forget our comrades behind bars,” he told The Irrawaddy.
Monywa Prison is notorious for its ill-treatment of political prisoners who have been arrested since the 2021 coup. At least 4,056 people have been killed and 24,740 civilians have been detained since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Of them, 19,447 remain behind bars.
