Former speaker of Mandalay Region parliament dies in junta custody

Aung Kyaw Oo, the former speaker of the Mandalay Region parliament, died at a prison hospital in Mandalay on Friday, according to members of his party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). The 69-year-old politician, who was serving a five-year sentence at Mandalay’s Obo Prison, was undergoing emergency treatment at the time of his death, the sources said. “Yes, he died this morning. They said he suddenly had trouble breathing. As far as I know, he didn’t have any major health issues before,” a female NLD member told Myanmar Now on Friday. Aung Kyaw Oo ran as an NLD candidate in the 2015 election and won the seat for Patheingyi Township in Mandalay Region. He was later appointed speaker of the region’s Hluttaw, or parliament. He won re-election in 2020, but after the military seized power in February 2021, he was placed under house arrest at his residence in Mandalay’s Mahaaungmyay Township. In April, he and his son Nyein Chan Soe, an NLD executive for Mahaaungmyay Township, were both arrested at their home. During the arrest, junta forces reportedly assaulted his daughter-in-law and other family members. Because his home doubled as the NLD ward office, the troops also vandalised the property, destroying the office and its signboards. Aung Kyaw Oo was later sentenced to five years in prison—three years under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code for incitement, and an additional two years under Section 25 of the Disaster Management Law for allegedly violating restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a former cellmate, Aung Kyaw Oo was close to being released after accounting for routine sentence reductions. Aung Kyaw Oo during the 2020 election campaign (Photo: Mandalay NLD) “He was nearly free. The father and son were held together in the same cell with me at first. They had been sentenced to three years initially, but were later separated and moved to different cells in the NLD inmates’ dormitory. I believe the additional charges were brought against them then,” the former political prisoner said. He was referring to Building 6, also known as the punishment building, where NLD party members are held in Obo Prison. “He was in good health during the six months we were held together—no health problems at all. He was doing very well physically,” the former cellmate said. After the coup, numerous NLD members and ministers from the Mandalay Region government were detained in the notorious Obo Prison. In October of last year, the ousted chief minister of Mandalay Region, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, died in custody after receiving inadequate medical treatment for leukaemia. Many other political prisoners are also struggling with health problems due to poor prison conditions. Such abuses are widespread in prisons across the country, where anti-junta detainees are regularly subjected to harsh treatment. Under the NLD government, prison visits were suspended starting the first week of September 2020 due to a rise in Covid-19 cases. They were not resumed again until more than three years later, when some prisons began to allow restricted visits. The junta-controlled Myanmar Human Rights Commission occasionally issues statements claiming it is investigating allegations of oppression in prisons. According to recent figures released by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a total of 6,824 democracy activists and civilians have died since the coup as a direct result of the junta’s efforts to suppress resistance to its rule. The regime has arrested 29,333 people since seizing power, of whom 22,175 remain in detention, the AAPP figures show.

Former speaker of Mandalay Region parliament dies in junta custody

Aung Kyaw Oo died of unknown causes after being transferred to a prison hospital late last week

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