Two political prisoners died separately in the junta’s jails on Saturday due to inadequate medical care.
Ma Wutt Yes Aung, a 26-year-old student activist, died in Insein prison, Yangon as a long-term result of head injuries she sustained under torture from the regime’s thugs and due to lack of proper medical treatment, activists reported.
Ko Thaik Htun Oo of the Political Prisoners Network of Myanmar (PPNM) said Ma Wutt Yee Aung, who had been on the central executive committee of the Dagon University Students Union, died on Saturday night.
The union in a statement said Ma Wutt Yee Aung suffered head injuries when she was tortured during interrogation, experiencing frequent fainting spells, seizures, and cardiac arrest as a consequence.
It said prison authorities refuse to provide treatment except in emergencies.
“We learned from the family that she died in the prison hospital at around 9:30 last night,” DUSU General Secretary Ko Shai Thura told The Irrawaddy on Sunday. “She was in and out of prison hospital due to the injuries she received during interrogation when she was arrested. In the end, there was no medicine for the injuries she suffered.”
Her family members had asked for her to be treated in a hospital outside the prison, but her jailers refused.
Saturday also brought news of the death in junta custody of Ko Pyae Sone Aung, an executive member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) chapter in Mon State’s Belin Township, the PPNM said.
He was arrested in January 2022 and given six years for alleged sedition and terrorism. Held at Thaton Prison, the 44-year-old had been suffering from hypertension, diabetes, and clogged arteries.
According to PPNM’s records, 14 political prisoners had died between January and July 8 this year due to lack of adequate medical care in prison, compared to an average of around 25 each year.
Then on July 10, two prominent former political prisoners also died: writer Maung Tha Cho and anti-regime Buddhist monk Shwe Nya Wa Sayadaw. Their health conditions too were exacerbated by medical neglect they endured while in prison.
Political prisoners continue to be subjected to torture and threats to their lives in various prisons under the military regime. Those working to help political prisoners have called for adequate in-prison medical treatment and supplies of medicine, and for those with health concerns to be treated promptly in hospitals outside prisons.
Editor’s Note: The story was updated on July 24 with the correct spelling of Ma Wutt Yee Aung’s name.
