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Myanmar prison guards torture inmates marking Martyrs’ Day

August 4, 2023/in News

They beat 31 political prisoners and locked them in narrow, dark cells. Prison guards at Myanmar’s Thayarwady (Tharyawaddy) Prison have beaten 31 inmates for marking the country’s Martyrs’ Day and four are being treated for their injuries in the prison hospital, sources told RFA Friday. Prisoners held a saluting ceremony on July 19, while women […]

More than 16,500 homes and buildings destroyed by Myanmar junta since coup

August 4, 2023/in News

Evicted residents, who can’t afford to buy new houses, have been forced to rent places or return to their villages. Myanmar’s military junta has evicted families and destroyed more than 16,500 homes and other buildings in large cities and towns across the Southeast Asian country, claiming that the structures “encroached on land owned by the […]

Myanmar prison guards torture inmates marking Martyrs’ Day

August 4, 2023/in News

More than 16,500 homes and buildings destroyed by Myanmar junta since coup

August 4, 2023/in News

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Myanmar prison guards torture inmates marking Martyrs’ Day

August 4, 2023/in News

They beat 31 political prisoners and locked them in narrow, dark cells.

Prison guards at Myanmar’s Thayarwady (Tharyawaddy) Prison have beaten 31 inmates for marking the country’s Martyrs’ Day and four are being treated for their injuries in the prison hospital, sources told RFA Friday.

Prisoners held a saluting ceremony on July 19, while women inmates wore black ribbons, said the sources close to the prison who didn’t want to be named for security reasons.

They said 16 men and 15 women have been locked up since then.

Martyr’s Day marks the July 19, 1947 assassination of nine Myanmar independence leaders, shot dead by members of a rival political group while holding a cabinet meeting in Yangon. The victims were Prime Minister Aung San, Minister of Information Ba Cho, Minister of Industry and Labor Mahn Ba Khaing, Minister of Trade Ba Win, Minister of Education Abdul Razak, and Myanmar’s unofficial Deputy Prime Minister Thakin Mya.

Less than six months after the end of British rule, the date of their assassination was designated a national holiday. It is marked annually by both the military regime and pro-democracy groups.

The prison ceremonies are thought to have been organized by Than Toe Aung, head of Yangon region’s Thanlyin township Youth Group of the National League for Democracy, the party which won a landslide victory in 2020 elections before being ousted by the military.

Than Toe Aung was hospitalized after interrogation, along with three others, Thaik Tun Oo, an official of the Myanmar Political Prisoners Network told RFA.

“Three days after Than Toe Aung was admitted to the hospital, three more were also admitted,” he said.

“We can confirm that they were severely beaten. Than Toe Aung is in critical condition. I heard he would be put in a locked cell after medical treatment.”

He added other political prisoners who have been locked in dark, cramped cells after interrogation include male dormitory inmates Yan Naing Soe; Hla Soe; Sote Phwar Gyi; Tarmwe Ko Zwel; ‘Dr Joe’; O Be; and a Letpantan township Civil Disobedience Movement captain who wasn’t named.

Women’s dormitory inmates who are still locked up after interrogation include Hnin Lae Nanda Lwin; Shun Ei Phyu; Nilar Sein; Su Yi Paing; Wut Yi Lwin; Aye Thida Kyaw; Yi Yi Swe; Lwin Lwin Nyunt; Sandi Nyunt Win; Aye Thet San; Shwe Yi Nyunt; Ya Min Htet; Htoo Htet Htet Wai; Myo Thandar Tun; and Moe Myat Thazin, according to the prisoners network official.

Another source close to the Tharyawady Prison told RFA other political prisoners are protesting against the locking up of their fellow inmates by boycotting the prison shop.

RFA contacted the Naypyidaw-based Prison Department by phone to get its comments on the case but there was no response.

The entrance to Tharyawady Prison is seen in this file photograph. Credit: RFA

There has been a series of brutal beatings and killings by prison guards since a jail break three months ago at the prison housing Myanmar’s ousted president, Win Myint.

On May 18, nine inmates escaped from Bago region’s Taungoo Prison, grabbing guns from prison guards and escaping into the jungle where they were met by members of a local People’s Defense Force.

Since then, political prisoners at Bago’s Thayarwady and Daik-U Central prisons and Myingyan Prison in Mandalay region have been beaten to death during interrogation or killed during ‘prison transfers’, according to family members and sources close to the prisons, who all requested anonymity to protect prisoners and their relatives.

More than 24,000 people, including pro-democracy activists, have been arrested since the Feb.1, 2021 coup, according to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma). It says almost 20,000 are still being detained across Myanmar.

On August 1, 254 prisoners, including some political prisoners in Tharyawady Prison were released by the junta’s amnesty. But sources close to the prison say as many as 900 political prisoners are still being held there, awaiting trial.

RFA News

More than 16,500 homes and buildings destroyed by Myanmar junta since coup

August 4, 2023/in News

Evicted residents, who can’t afford to buy new houses, have been forced to rent places or return to their villages.

Myanmar’s military junta has evicted families and destroyed more than 16,500 homes and other buildings in large cities and towns across the Southeast Asian country, claiming that the structures “encroached on land owned by the state,” according to data compiled by Radio Free Asia.

The data is based on residents’ testimonies and notices from local authorities, compiled since the military seized control of the country from the elected civilian-led government in a February 2021 coup. The actual figure may be higher, however.

The junta has removed the buildings under the pretext of “encroachment,” claiming the land belongs to the railway department, the irrigation department, or the military, or that it has been zoned for municipal infrastructure.

The junta also has forcibly evicted people living in informal settlements as part of a bid to increase its land holdings, RFA reportedin February.

Families who have lost their homes say they are now facing hardship.

The remains of homes demolished by Myanmar junta forces are seen in Ward 3 of Mayangon township in Yangon region, Nov. 19, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist

The military has leveled nearly 11,700 houses and buildings in Yangon region, home to Myanmar’s largest city and former capital, and the area with the greatest concentration of buildings.

Of that figure, the junta has demolished more than 4,100 houses and buildings in Mandalay, the second-largest city by population, while smaller cities and towns, such as Magway, Naypyidaw, Taungoo, Sittwe and Ann have seen between 75 to 200 demolitions each.

The military removed residential houses in Magway, saying they were too close to an Air Force base, demolished civilian homes and buildings in Mandalay on the grounds that the inhabitants were squatting on regional government-owned land, private land or land too close to a railway, and tore down homes in Naypyidaw, claiming they were situated too close to the Yan Aung Myin Forest Reserve.

Enter the bulldozers

A resident of Myo Thit Ward No. 4 in Mandalay who had lived in a home there for 17 years, said the junta leveled 200 homes in the ward, including his.

“There was no deadline in the notice that the authorities sent to us,” he said. “It just said that we must move out as soon as possible, so we started collecting our property and disassembling our homes.”

“But yesterday bulldozers arrived and started bulldozing our houses around noon,” said the resident who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution. “Right now, I have rented a house to live in.”

A resident who was evicted from Manadalay’s Pyigyitagun township told RFA that he could not afford to buy another dwelling because of high commodity prices.

“We had to pinch pennies with a lot of difficulty to save up and buy our house,” he said.

The location of a razed neighborhood (light brown in center of image) in Myanmar’s Mandalay region is seen on April 16, 2023. Credit: Airbus

Patheingyi township administrators under the control of the military issued notices this June to nearly 10,000 households that their homes would be removed on the grounds that they had been built on farmland without permission.

Similarly, in Yangon region, the junta demolished homes it claimed were built on lands owned by public parks, the regional government or the military.

In November 2022, soldiers knocked down about 100 houses in Yangon’s Mayangon township they claimed was on land owned by a stadium, forcing nearly 300 people into homelessness.

A resident who refused to be named for safety reasons told RFA he had to rent a house to stay on the outskirts of the city because he could not afford to buy a new one.

“No one could buy another house again after the evictions,” he said. “All of them have to live as tenants now. Some had to go back to their villages.”

Human rights violation

Rights activist Zaw Yan of the Yangon People’s Welfare Network told RFA that the junta’s demolition of civilian homes under the pretext of encroachment is a violation of human rights.

“From a human rights standpoint, it is a violation of Article 13 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” he said. “Also, they’ve violated [Myanmar’s] constitution which says that every citizen has the right to live in any region within the country according to the law.”

In a statement issued on Dec. 2, 2022, U.N. human rights officials said the junta’s act of removing houses by force was a violation of basic human rights and a war crime.

Homes demolished by Myanmar junta troops are seen in Pyigyitagon township in Mandalay region, Feb. 28, 2023. Credit: Citizen journalist

Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for Myanmar’s State Administration Council, the official name of the regime, told RFA in March 2022 that the junta had to focus on encroachment issues because previous governments did not resolve them.

A Yangon-based attorney who knows about the demolitions told RFA that previously the removal of homes was usually suspended or postponed through negotiations with administrative officials, though that’s no longer possible under current military rule.

RFA News

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ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

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