Irrawaddy-Aug 4
Thirty-one political prisoners, including 15 women, were beaten and placed in solitary confinement in Bago Region’s Tharyarwaddy Prison for commemorating Martyrs’ Day, according to groups that monitor political prisoners in Myanmar. The 15 women were removed from group cells and placed in solitary confinement for wearing black ribbons on Martyrs’ Day, said Ko Thaik Tun Oo, a spokesperson for the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar. All 15 have been kept in solitary confinement since that day, said Ko Thaik Tun Oo, who is a former political prisoner. He said the 16 male political prisoners were beaten and then placed in solitary confinement for saluting fallen heroes on Martyrs’ Day, which falls on July 19. “We received reports that men were beaten once they were taken out of their dormitories and females were beaten when they arrived in solitary confinement,” Ko Thaik Tun Oo said. His network received the reports from inmates released from Tharyarwaddy Prison following the junta’s pardon on August 1. The reports from newly released inmates follow a report in early June that said torture of political prisonerswas on the rise in Myanmar.
A National League for Democracy (NLD) youth member, Ko Than Toe Aung, and three other male prisoners were so severely injured during their assaults that they had to be transferred to the prison’s hospital, Ko Thaik Tun Oo said. The Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar and the AAPP said they are deeply concerned about political prisoners kept in solitary confinement because their condition is unknowable. Myanmar celebrates Martyrs’ Day on July 19 every year to mark the assassination of independence hero General Aung San—the father of the jailed leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi—and eight colleagues in 1947. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/political-prisoners-tortured-for-honoring-myanmars-martyrs-day.html
