Women inmates beaten, abused at Bago Region’s Daik-U Prison

Authorities targeted female prisoners in a spree of beatings and other abuse at Daik-U Prison in Bago Region last week, according to sources in contact with the prison’s inmates. The incidents occurred on August 19 after a female political prisoner at Daik-U objected to an intrusive search during morning visiting hours, according to a source. “They were conducting searches on inmates coming to receive packages, checking them all over. They had to strip naked, and they even did cavity searches. One of them spoke up, saying they shouldn’t search that way in front of the security cameras. For that, she was slapped, had her hair pulled, and was beaten quite hard,” he said. The inmate was a recent transferee from Kyaikmaraw Prison in Mon State. “Later that evening, the officer supervising prison visits, San Nwe Oo, brought male prison guards to shoot slingshots at the women inmates in their dormitory. They also went into the dormitory and beat them with rubber truncheons,” the source said. “The guards dragged several of the inmates out by brute force, beating seven transferees. A projectile from one of the slingshots hit one of them on the forehead; another was hit in the eye; and another was hit on the abdomen, where she had stitches from an unhealed wound,” he continued, adding that other inmates were reportedly struck on the arms and legs or dragged by their hair. The incident left at least seven inmates, including three of the transferees from Kyaikmaraw, with injuries requiring professional medical attention, according to the source. Thaik Tun Oo, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM), said the organisation had received information that prison officer San Nwe Oo, the instigator of the assault, would face charges and that the situation inside the prison has calmed since the day the beatings took place. The PPNM issued a statement on the day the incident, highlighting the allegation that San New Oo had entered the women’s prison cells and “beat and dragged one prisoner out by her hair.” According to the statement, the prisoner’s fellow inmates reportedly tried to intervene to help her, leading to the prison staff beating them as well. “I haven’t seen any charges yet, but there are reports that prison authorities intend to take action against him. None of the political prisoners are currently receiving medical treatment, but none have been charged,” Thaik Tun Oo said. Nonetheless, the alarming abuse of the injured prisoners has contributed to growing concerns about the adequacy of treatment and medication provided to inmates, according to the PPNM spokesperson. Daik-U Prison authorities have suppressed all information about the injured prisoners’ status, he said. Two political prisoners died earlier this year in Daik-U Prison, reportedly after receiving inadequate medical care. The deceased prisoners were Aye Win, 68, who died on February 9 while serving an eight-year sentence for “incitement” under Section 505a of the Myanmar Penal Code; and Khin Soe, who was serving 14 years under Sections 52a and 50j of the Counterterrorism Law and died on March 6. The authorities at Daik-U Prison, located just under 90 miles north of Yangon on the Yangon-Mandalay expressway, have a reputation for mistreatment and torture of inmates. They have also become infamous for committing extrajudicial killings since the military coup. When twelve political prisoners, including members of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions, were shot dead in July 2023 during a prisoner transfer from Daik-U, authorities claimed they were forced to shoot them after a prison van crashed and the transferees inside tried to escape. Since the military coup, 5,570 civilians who have protested or otherwise opposed the coup regime have been killed, according to data collected by the research group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) as of August 27. The statement also noted that 20,792 individuals have been arrested for opposing the coup, of whom 167 have been sentenced to death. The group announced also in a statement this week that they had begun compiling a separate list of more than 2,000 people killed by the junta based on new evidence. The military council has previously responded to the AAPP’s reports by claiming their figures are inaccurate.

Women inmates beaten, abused at Bago Region’s Daik-U Prison

Since Myanmar’s military coup, the Daik-U Prison authorities have been among the most notorious for the mistreatment, torture, and even extrajudicial killing of prisoners

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