Demands for Prisoner’s rights in Insein prison

Feb 18th, 2010

Demands for Prisoner’s rights

Date. 17/02/2010

We, as prisoners, demand the following rights to the authorities from 17 February 2010:

  1. To read books including news papers
  2. To get proper medical treatment
  3. To get better foods for all prisoners
  4. To be free to go out of our  cell in our compound, except during closing time of the prison
  5. To write and have access to paper and pens

The reasons we are making these demands are:

Reason 1.  It takes one week to ten days to get magazines, journals, and books, which come from family members.  Sometimes the pages are torn and the books have been censored. There is no regular access to news papers, the newspapers , when they do arrive, are often out of date and may come two or three days later.

Reason 2.  We do not get enough medicine. It is difficult and the wait is long before seeing a doctor. There are no eye, ear, and mouth doctors. It is a difficult and long process to get medical treatment outside of the prison. There is poor sanitation; in particular, there are no covers for the toilet bucket s in solitary confinement.

Reason 3.  The rice is of poor quality and includes grains of paddy and stones. The bean soup and the sour vegetable soup often have insects in it and is dirty.  We only get two meat meals a week. The curry smells bad. We are not getting any salt.

Reason 4.  Political prisoners are only allowed to walk outside for one hour in the morning and one hour in evening, and we have to spend the rest of the time ( 22 hours) in our cell.

Reason 5. We are not allowed to have our own paper or pens . If the authorities find out that a prisoner has paper or pens, the prisoner will be punished and sent to the punishment cell called the “Dog Cell”. We are not allowed to write to our families.

On behalf of Prisoners

Insein Prison, Rangon.

###

For media interviews, please contact:

Tate Naing, Secretary: +66 (0) 81-287-8751

Bo Kyi, Joint-Secretary: +66 (0) 81-324-8935

Thanks N Regards,

U Aung Myo Thein

Assistant Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
Contact: info@aappb.org, info@fbppn.net
Web: http://www.aappb. org, http://www.fbppn. net, http://nd-burma. org

* The views expressed by authors in the articles are their own, but not necessarily reflect the policy standpoint of BURMA DIGEST editorial team.
* Readers can also state their views in English in the comment box below; currently No Comments.
* This article is archived under Statements category.

Leave a Reply