Conditions inside Daik-U Prison in Bago Region continue to worsen as regime authorities move to tighten restrictions on political prisoners being held there.
According to a former political prisoner with contacts inside the prison, inmates can now receive just one care package every two weeks, with each one limited to three servings of food.
“Three servings every other week is not enough to survive on. Prisoners usually share that food with others who don’t receive anything, so it doesn’t go very far,” he said, noting that prisoners were previously allowed one package a week, with no limit on how much food each one contained.
“It seems they want them to buy food from the prison canteen, but that food is almost inedible,” he added.
Political prisoners have also been denied permission to walk outside their cells and can no longer watch television or read, according to the former prisoner.
“The main problem is that they can’t send letters to their families now. They’ve lost contact for a month now,” he said.
The situation inside Daik-U Prison has been tense since late June, when at least eight prisoners were shot dead for allegedly attempting to escape while being transferred from the prison.
A month later, eight more prisoners were placed in solitary confinement after one, a prisoner named Phyo Aung who had been transferred from Insein Prison in Yangon, was beaten for failing to keep his head down during a visit by a prison officer.
The others were punished for attempting to come to his defence, according to Thaik Tun Oo, a spokesperson for the Political Prisoners’ Network, an exiled advocacy group.
Five of the prisoners have since been returned to their cells in the prison’s Ward 1, according to prison sources. The identities of those still being held in solitary confinement could not be confirmed at the time of reporting.
There have also been reports that all of the prison’s staff have been replaced with former military personnel, according to the former political prisoner who spoke to Myanmar Now.
“I don’t know what happened to the old staff. It’s all new people there now, mostly ex-soldiers, from what I hear,” he said.
Political prisoners inside Myingyan Prison in Mandalay Region have also faced harsh crackdowns in recent months. At least 20 suspected of using mobiles phones were placed in solitary confinement and tortured after being interrogated in late May.
More than 800 political prisoners are being held in Myingyan Prison, whose most prominent detainee is Dr. Myint Naing, the ousted chief minister of Sagaing Region, who was transferred there in August of last year.
Others include photojournalist Zaw Zaw and 17 youths from Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township sentenced to death for their anti-junta activities. Several doctors who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement against military rule are also being held there for alleged unlawful association.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the regime has imprisoned a total of 24,632 people for opposing its rule over the past two and half years. Of these, 19,846 remain behind bars, the group claims.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to Myanmar’s prisons under the current junta, which seized power in a coup in February 2021.
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