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The death toll of political prisoners in the military junta’s prisons across Myanmar hit 31 in 2024 due to poor healthcare and inhumane treatment — nearly double the number of those who died for the same reasons in 2023, a year-end report by a political prisoners’ rights group says.
And their conditions are growing worse year by year in jails under the junta which seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat, said the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar, or PPNM, which monitors the situation inside the nation’s prison system, in the report issued Tuesday.
Of those who died, nine succumbed to unlawful torture and extrajudicial killings, both inside and outside the prisons, or were killed outside prisons, for political reasons and in response to protests against prison authorities, said PPNM committee member Theik Tun Oo.
Twenty-two others passed away because of inadequate health care, including the denial of urgent medical treatment and restricted access to public hospitals for so-called security reasons, he told Radio Free Asia.
Prominent political prisoners of the former National League for Democracy government — Zaw Myint Maung, chief minister of Mandalay region, and Win Khaing, minister of electricity and energy — both died in prison due to insufficient healthcare.
Last year, 17 political prisoners died from a lack of health care or human rights violations.
Female political prisoners
The report also noted that 42 female political prisoners were serving sentences across Myanmar at the end of 2024.
Among them were 35 mothers imprisoned with their children and seven pregnant women, though the actual numbers could be higher, the group said.
Some female political prisoners were knowingly arrested by the military junta during the coup while they were pregnant. Others were found pregnant after being taken to the prisons. Many of these women have since given birth in prison and are raising their babies behind bars.
Some children are suffering from mental and physical abuse in prisons, and lack access to nutritious food, Theik Tun Oo said.
“At present, children are exposed to the negative habits in the prisons, such as swearing and shouting, and they regularly have seen their mothers being abused,” he said.
Advocates for political prisoner are calling for the immediate release of pregnant women and mothers in jails with their children.
RFA could not reach junta spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment.
‘Brutal beatings’
In 2024, authorities also transferred about 1,800 political prisoners to correctional facilities far from their families, according to the report.
Former inmates said political prisoners were often moved to prevent them from protesting the suffering they experienced behind bars.
The father of a prisoner who was transferred to Tharyawaddy Prison in Bago region after serving a long-term sentence in Yangon’s Insein Prison on three political charges told RFA that he had difficulty getting a permit for jail visit.
Authorities arrested Naing Kyaw during the junta’s 2021 crackdown on young people protesting the coup in Yangon.
“He continues to suffer from internal injuries sustained during brutal beatings by the junta,” said his father.
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The father and some other relatives of other prisoners collectively hired a taxi to visit their jailed family members, with each having to pay about 20,000-30,000 kyats (US$9-14). He said he had to send daily necessities because of Naing Kyaw’s poor health.
RFA could not reach the office of deputy director-general of the Prisons Department for comment.
Legal rights denied
Myanmar’s Prison Act stipulates that political prisoners must be held in separate cells and are guaranteed full rights to medical care and family visits.
But legal experts have pointed out that following the military coup, such prisoners have been denied their legal rights and subjected to neglect.
“After 2021, prison management shifted to following orders from senior officials rather than adhering to prison laws and regulations,” a legal expert, who declined to be named for safety reasons, told RFA.
“Legal standards have been ignored, with junior officials, prison authorities and general staff merely implementing directives instead of upholding the law,” he said.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, another organization that supports political prisoners in Myanmar, said on Oct. 7 that 103 political prisoners had died in prisons for various reasons since the coup d’état. Of that figure, 63 died due to a lack of sufficient medical treatment.
At year-end, the group documented nearly 21,500 political prisoners across Myanmar.
Translated by Aung Naing for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.