Two people being kept at a military hospital in Mandalay after they were injured and then arrested during a deadly crackdown on protesters last week have been denied visits from their families.
The injured men were among three admitted to the hospital inside a compound of the 910th Battalion in Mandalay after last Saturday’s attack.
The third, 26-year-old Yar Zar Aung, died on Wednesday morning at the hospital and was cremated the same day. His wife, Phyu Phyu Win, was told that he died of Covid-19 but believes he was beaten to death.
He was admitted to the hospital with a bullet wound in his leg.
The wife of one of the two surviving patients said hospital authorities had informed her that the two had been quarantined on a different ward because they had been in close contact with Yar Zar Aung.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said the visits were stopped after she informed Yar Zar Aung’s family of his death.
“They told me not to speak about the death of a patient but I informed his family members. Now I am not allowed to see my husband,” she said.
On Thursday she brought some medicine that her husband needed for surgery, as requested by the hospital. “But police guards just came out to take them and I wasn’t allowed to go and see him anymore,” she told Myanmar Now.
Her husband was shot in his left arm during the crackdown, she said.
A police guard had earlier told her that “they would cut his hand off if I didn’t bring medicine,” she added. “I don’t know what his situation is now.”
Soldiers, police and patients were not following guidelines to prevent Covid-19 when she last visited, she said.
The hospital did not answer requests for further information. A spokesperson for the military council did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
At least 30 people were injured when soldiers and police used force to break up the demonstration near the Yadanarbon shipyard on Mandalay’s Strand road last Saturday.
One of the protesters, 16-year-old Wai Yan Tun, was killed instantly when he was shot in the head, while another, Thet Naing Win, 36, died on the way to the hospital of a gunshot wound to the chest.
The violence began after hundreds gathered to support striking shipyard workers when police tried to force them to return to work under the threat of arrest.
About 20 trucks full of security personnel arrived to stamp out the demonstration using catapults, water cannon and rubber bullets as well as live rounds.
State media later described those injured as “aggressive protesters” and said security forces “softly dispersed the crowds in accordance with the prescribed crowd dispersal methods and laws.”
An emergency worker who was at the crackdown told Myanmar Now security forces shot at ambulances that had arrived to collect injured people.
Another emergency worker said that when Yar Zar Aung was arrested with a bullet wound in his leg, security forces refused to let her treat him.
“I begged them, crying, but they refused. I wasn’t able to save him,” she told Myanmar Now.
More than 80 people were arrested, including those with serious injuries.
About 70 of those arrested have been charged with crimes including incitement under section 505a of the Penal Code. Their hearings are scheduled for March 5, according to a lawyer helping with their defense.
