80 Rohingya inmates remain in custody in Magway Region’s Thayet Prison despite an announcement that they would be released as part of a broader amnesty, according to a former fellow prisoner.
The Myanmar military announced on August 1 that more than 7,000 prisoners would be released throughout Myanmar, including 129 from the prison in Thayet, on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River some 50 miles southwest of Naypyitaw.
However, only 49 inmates have been freed from Thayet Prison since the announcement, with 77 Rohingya men and three women remaining in custody, according to Nyo Tun, a former Thayet prisoner released this month.
“The prison authorities also threatened to add more charges for prisoners who initiated protests about this matter,” Nyo Tun said.
He added that authorities at Thayet Prison had listed the 80 Rohingya prisoners by name in the amnesty announcement, but then transferred them to other wards instead of releasing them.
Sources with close connections to Thayet inmates also told Myanmar Now that the prison was even still holding Rohingya prisoners who had already finished serving their sentences in June and July. Nearly 200 Rohingya Muslims are currently being held at Thayet prison on Immigration charges.
“Many of them can’t even speak much Burmese. I don’t know what they were charged with, but they were arrested on their way to Malaysia,” Nyo Tun said.
Citing a prison staff member, he added there had not yet been an order to release the Rohingya prisoners, but one had been given to stop their rations.
Rohingya detainees often become targets of the worst mistreatment in prisons throughout Myanmar. 150 Rohingya men and women held at the Taung Kalay Prison in Hpa-An township, Karen State, have been suffering more than their fellow inmates from malnutrition and a lack of access to medical services.
When they did not bribe the prison authorities, Rohingya inmates at Yangon’s Insein Prison were beaten and forced into latrine maintenance and other demeaning work.
The 7,000 prisoners ostensibly reprieved by the military council’s amnesty included 22 members of ethnic armed organisations (EAOs), 72 charged with unlawful association with the EAOs, and 125 foreign nationals.
