Category: World

Authorities under the junta’s Ministry of Home Affairs have transferred dozens of political prisoners from Myanmar’s Insein Prison in Yangon to a facility infamous for its poor treatment of inmates, RFA has learned, prompting concern from family members for their well-being. Prison Department authorities transferred the estimated 250 political prisoners to western Bago region’s Tharyarwaddy Prison – where former inmates have reported being subjected to torture and other forms of abuse – on Sept. 24, relatives told RFA Burmese, adding that they were never informed of the move. Former political prisoners say transferring inmates to prisons such as Tharyarwaddy, where they have little access to family members and are subjected to poor treatment, is a tactic the junta uses to punish them for their activism and break their spirit. A family member of journalist and political prisoner Nyein Nyein Aye, who was among those transferred to Tharyarwaddy last month, said they were worried about her safety and status at the new prison. “I got a surprise phone call informing me they were transferring her to a new location. I was shaken,” said the family member of the reporter, also known as Mabel, who is serving a three-year sentence for allegedly violating the country’s Counterterrorism Law. “Tharwaddy is not close to where we live. It will be very difficult to send her packages. I later learned that she was forced to move abruptly and had to leave all her belongings … She has to buy all of her personal items at the new location. It will be very difficult for her.” Another relative of a political prisoner, who declined to be named, said getting packages to inmates at Tharyarwaddy is significantly more complicated. “We need to present a copy of our national ID card and list of family members issued by Immigration Department to prove we are related to the prisoner,” they said. “A family member must then go in-person to deliver the package. It is challenging because now they are in another region. I can’t travel there every month to do that because I don’t have enough money.” Additionally, the relative said, there is no guarantee that inmates will even receive what is sent to them, as the staff at Tharyarwaddy are known to steal the contents of packages. “I cooked enough food for a month, but [my relative] didn’t receive all of it. I was told they only received four of the 15 packages I sent,” they said. When asked by RFA about the conditions at Tharyarwaddy, Deputy Director General of the Prison Department Naing Win dismissed the allegations. “We currently have some regulations for health reasons, so all packages are kept at a facility associated with the prison. We process and inspect them and then forward them on,” he said. “They can file a complaint to us if they have problems sending packages. We are doing our best to facilitate the process. We have never violated their rights or made the prisoner’s lives harder.” Police security forces guard Tharrawaddy Prison on Aug. 4, 2015. Credit: RFA Reports of abuse In addition to concerns over personal property, there have been reports of political prisoners being mistreated, physically abused, and even tortured at Tharyarwaddy. In July, authorities transferred more than 60 political prisoners to Tharyarwaddy from Hpa-An Prison in Kayin state. Sources told RFA that upon their arrival, the inmates were forced to sit in uncomfortable positions and later beaten, leaving several with severe injuries. Mar Kee, a former student activist and prisoner of conscience who served time in Tharyarwaddy Prison during the 1980s told RFA that it is one of Myanmar’s worst detention centers. “During our time, the prison had severe restrictions and life was very tough … We had to fight for our rights as they forced political prisoners to perform hard labor with the other inmates and we endured torture there,” he said. “We heard conditions improved after ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) staff visited the prison. I assume the current situation there might not be as bad as in our time. But it won’t be as good as the time immediately following the ICRC visit.” Mar Kee said political prisoners who staff at other prisons had singled out as “troublemakers” were immediately subjected to physical abuse upon their arrival at Tharyarwaddy, and often placed in solitary confinement. ‘Their intent is clear’ Former political prisoner Win Zaw Naing told RFA that the junta is following the playbook of Myanmar’s previous military regime in dealing with prisoners of conscience by sending them to Thayarwaddy and prisons in remote locations, where they have less access to family members and are forced to endure harsh conditions. “Their intent is clear,” he said. “They want to subject political prisoners to hardships.” Win Zaw Naing said authorities also intend to “punish the family members” by transferring political prisoners to far flung locations where they lose contact with their loved ones for months at a time. “Their hope is to hurt both the prisoners and their relatives outside the prison,” he said. Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) says that authorities in Myanmar have arrested nearly 16,000 people since last year’s coup – mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. More than 12,500 remain in detention, the group says. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

On Sept. 16, 2022, at least seven minors were killed when military aircraft fired on a village school in Sagaing region in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on children in Myanmar since last year’s coup. UNICEF condemned the attack in Tabayin township’s Let Yet Kone village and put the death toll even higher, saying at least 11 children died “in an airstrike and indiscriminate fire in civilian areas.” It said at least 15 other children from the same school were still missing. Residents of Tabayin township told RFA Burmese after the attack that the helicopters fired on the school “for nearly an hour” before junta foot soldiers let loose with guns. They claimed the nearly 80 troops who raided the school belonged to Light Infantry Battalion 368, under the 10th Military Operations Command based in Kyi Kone village, in Sagaing’s Kale township. Two weeks later, a schoolteacher who survived the raid told RFA Burmese reporter Nayrein Kyaw of the terrifying incident she witnessed that day. Now in hiding, her name has been withheld due to security concerns. RFA: Can you describe the events that took place on Sept. 16? Schoolteacher: It must have been about 12:50 p.m. Ko Aung Saw Htway, who helped us with the computer at our school, told me planes were coming our way, so I yelled out a warning to the young teachers at the primary classes and … herded the children to the ground floor of the [nearby] monastery to hide. The moment we got there, a teacher said [a boy] was hit in the leg. A young teacher then brought some children over to me and told me she had been hit by a bullet in the thigh. I saw her face was covered in blood. Just then, a child who was crouching near me was hit in the neck by shrapnel. All her hair was cut off. The shooting went on for an hour or so. The place was hit by heavy weapons as well as machine gun fire. And then soldiers, with bamboo baskets on their backs, entered the compound and reached the place where we were hiding. Then they fired their weapons towards the small [stupa] in the compound. Some soldiers ordered us to come out and said we must come out with heads bowed. “If you look at us, you’re dead,” one of them said. I glanced towards the primary classrooms and saw children coming out. It was heart wrenching to see small kids covered in blood, some with head wounds, others with leg wounds, some hit in the back, and one hit in the eye. I tried to look for my children. I have three attending this school. I saw my eldest [daughter] and youngest [son], but I couldn’t find my middle child. My daughter’s clothes were completely soaked in blood, and I asked her if she was OK. She said her friend Win Win Khine was hit in the belly and all of her intestines were falling out. She said there were many dead in the classroom. And then my son, the middle child, ran to me crying. He was crying out his friend’s name, Maung Hpone. The boy was one of our neighbors. A school bag lies next to dried blood stains on the floor of a school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar on Sept. 17, 2022, the day after an airstrike hit the school. Very soon the boy’s mother arrived crying. The soldiers asked her why she was coming this way and she said her son was hit and she wanted to find him. I heard one of the soldiers saying into his radio, “Stop it, that’s enough,” and the firing stopped. We asked them to let us give water to the children and treat Maung Hpone. When I saw him, his arm was missing and there were holes in his feet. His face was all black. He was saying over and over, “Mother, I am in so much pain, please kill me now.” I remembered a wounded girl I hid under a huge bed. She was also badly wounded. I told the soldiers to pull her out. She was laid on the bed and I could see all the blood on her face and body. She was half conscious. She had been hit in the head and legs. The soldiers said, “If you don’t want these children to die, we want two people who can drive to come forward.” One of the volunteer teachers came forward and said he could drive. The soldiers also asked the head monk for some [big plastic] bags and I saw them putting the bodies and body parts of those killed into them. They also took the seriously wounded children with them. On the way out, they shot all the men they saw in the village in the heads. RFA: What kind of aircraft were they using? Jet fighters or helicopters? Schoolteacher: People said there were both. Two helicopters were dropping soldiers while the two fighters opened fire on the village. A damaged roof and ceiling are seen at a school in Let Yet Kone village in Tabayin township in the Sagaing region of Myanmar on Sept. 17, 2022, the day after an airstrike hit the school. Credit: Associated Press ‘They should investigate first’ RFA: So how many children and how many adults were killed in the attack? Schoolteacher: Four students died instantly and another one died in the hospital, so altogether five students. And then two teenagers were killed outside the school which makes a total of seven students. Six [adult] villagers were killed too. So the death toll was 13. RFA: How many were taken away by the soldiers? Schoolteacher: Altogether 11 students and teachers were taken away. Two men who drove the cars and another four villagers were also abducted.  RFA: Has anyone been released yet? Schoolteacher: No, none of them have been released yet….

A military court in Myanmar’s Yangon region has sentenced a former doctor-turned-model to six years in prison for posting provocative content online deemed “harmful to Burmese culture,” prompting condemnation from lawyers and rights groups who called the punishment “unjust.” The Military Court of Dagon Myothit (North) Township on Tuesday ordered Nang Mwe San to serve a six-year jail term for publishing “sexually explicit” photos and videos online in violation of Article 33 (a) of Myanmar’s Electronic Communications Act and tarnishing the country’s cultural image. The sentence marks the first time that someone has been prosecuted under the act, which was enacted during the 2011-2016 administration of former President Thein Sein. Nang Mwe San’s friend confirmed to Ij-Reportika Burmese that the military court in Dagon Myothit issued the sentence after what she said was a nearly month-long closed trial. “The sentence was six years imprisonment, handed down by the military court,” said the friend, speaking on condition of anonymity. “They said [the trial] was faster than usual because the northern part of Dagon is a martial law region.” Attempts by Ij-Reportika to contact Nang Mwe San’s family members by phone for more details about her case went unanswered Wednesday. The junta has yet to release any information about the court ruling. Nang Mwe San participated in street protests after the military takeover on Feb. 1, 2021, and, in March that year, posted comments to social media decrying the junta’s deadly crackdown on the unrest. Shortly thereafter, the junta announced that she would be arrested under Section 505 (a) of the Penal Code for defamation against the state and she went into hiding. Sources close to the doctor said that she eventually signed a bond with authorities whereby she was permitted to return to her home in Dagon Myothit (North). However, on Aug. 5, the military arrested Nang Mwe San, along with film actress Thinzar Wint Kyaw, for “distributing suggestive photos and videos on a foreign website for a fee.” Nang Mwe San’s friend told Ij-Reportika that because Thinzar Wint Kyaw is from Yangon’s Mayangone township, which is not a martial law zone, “her case will be decided by a civil court.” Sources close to the Mayangone Township Court said Thinzar Wint Kyaw stood trial on Sept. 14, although further details about the actress’s case were not immediately available.   Undated photo of Nang Mwe San who was sentenced to six years in prison for posting photos ‘deemed to harm the Myanmar culture’ by the junta’s military court on Sept. 27, 2022. Credit: Nang Mwe San’s Facebook    ‘Protecting’ Burmese culture A veteran lawyer, who did not want to be named for security reasons, called Tuesday’s ruling “unjust” and said it did nothing to promote Burmese culture. “This legal action is just an excuse and I’m sure there are other undisclosed reasons behind it,” he said. “And Myanmar’s culture will not benefit because of this action against [the two women]. Can [the junta] really stop this sort of thing? I don’t think it’s possible.” He added that Section 33 (a) of the Electronic Communications Act is too vague in its definition of what content can be considered “harmful” to the country’s culture. Zaw Ran, a human rights activist from the Yangon People’s Advocacy Network, told Ij-Reportika that instead of sentencing people to lengthy jail terms, first-time offenders who violate Section 33 (a) should be given a warning. “I wonder if these women, Nang Mwe San and Thinzar Wint Kyaw, understand the relevant laws,” he said. “People feel so sorry for them. If they didn’t know about the law, they should have been informed about it before they were punished.” Zaw Ran condemned the military court ruling for its lack of transparency and said Nang Mwe San was denied access to a proper legal defense. Saw Han Nway Oo, a writer, told Ij-Reportika that arresting and jailing women for such actions is a violation of their rights, noting that in nearly every country there are people who earn money the same way. “I think it’s unfair to hand down such a harsh sentence for exposing your body online for a fee,” she said. “There are so many people doing this nowadays, even if they say ours is a country where Buddhism and culture flourish and that this is not compatible with our culture. And I think using this Communications Law to jail them is just wrong.” She added that there are many models showing off their beauty for a living in Myanmar but those who support the military have not been arrested or prosecuted. Artists from the music, film and theatrical industries took to the streets to protest the military takeover in Myanmar, prompting the military to announce that hundreds of celebrities would be arrested and charged under Section 505 (a). Among them, actor Pyay Ti Oo, Eindra Kyaw Zin, Lu Min, pop singer Po Po and make-up artist Win Min Than were arrested. Some were later released while others were imprisoned by the military. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.