Insein Prison inmates facing political charges have been both tortured by the prison authorities and denied medical treatment for their resulting injuries, according to a student organisation in contact with the detainees.
On Thursday, the University Students’ Union Alumni Force (USUAF) posted on Facebook a two-page handwritten letter sent by a prisoner describing conditions inside Insein, noting that some detainees were in urgent need of medical attention and requesting outside help.
Nan Lin, a leader within the USUAF, told Myanmar Now that the political prisoner who wrote the letter could not be identified for their own safety.
“The news about inmates not getting medical help has been widespread since the beginning. This letter is evidence of the horrors that the political prisoners of Insein Prison are facing at this very moment,” he said.
Those described in the document include a protester, Mya Kyu Kyu Thin, who was injured when a military car rammed into a demonstration on Panbingyi St in Yangon’s Kyimindaing Township in early December, and who, since her arrest, has suffered from severe untreated headaches and nosebleeds in detention, likely caused by the head injury she suffered in the attack.
She was one of eight people arrested in the incident, and was initially forced to spend two weeks in an interrogation centre despite her injury. After this period, she was immediately transferred to Insein Prison, where she has still not received adequate medical care, her lawyer Thet Naing told Myanmar Now.
“As per our last meeting at her last court hearing, I was told she was admitted to the prison hospital but that she wasn’t getting enough medical attention there,” he said.
Mya Kyu Kyu Thin is currently facing an incitement charge under Section 505a, which carries a sentence of up to three years if convicted
Another prisoner described in the letter published by USUAF is believed to have suffered damage to their nervous system and is experiencing regular fainting spells after being subjected to violent interrogations.
One detainee also reportedly suffered a stroke—the only time at which they were brought to a hospital, the letter said.
“They are facing death in the sense that they all have medical conditions that could very likely condemn them to death or disability,” Nan Lin explained.
Wai Yan Phyo Moe, the vice chair of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions who was sentenced to more than two years in prison and badly tortured, was also denied medical care, his lawyer confirmed.
Political prisoners who were beaten during a crackdown on a prison strike in December of last year have also not been able to have their injuries treated, the lawyer said.
“They can’t request medical care. Sometimes all we have been able to do is apply ointment to their injuries at their court hearings,” he said.
According to data compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a total of more than 1,550 people have been killed since the military coup in February of last year, some 90 of whom were murdered in junta custody during interrogations.
The military council has dismissed the AAPP’s numbers as “exaggerated.”
Student activist Nan Lin expressed his disappointment for what he said has been a lack of support and action from international organisations and UN bodies to address the dire conditions facing political prisoners in Myanmar.
“No matter what their procedures are, it’s our comrades inside that are facing terrifying circumstances,” he said. “What more [evidence] do they need? We’ve already seen that people are being killed during interrogation and in prison.
