Myanmar Insein: A rare glimpse inside a barbaric prison

[Social Media]

 

Phyo Wai Hlaing, a 21-year-old wi-fi technician, had been missing for a week in July 2021 when his father received an anonymous phone call telling him to go to a bridge far from his neighbourhood in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

There the street food vendor was told that his son had been arrested. A few days later he read about it in the state-run newspaper.

Phyo Wai Hlaing was among a group of 29 who were arrested and accused of storing explosives for use in terrorist attacks and for supporting People's Defence Force insurgents who are fighting Myanmar's military government.

Also in that group was Si Thu Aung, a 19-year-old, first-year engineering student. Witnesses told his mother they saw him being taken away by police the day after Phyo Wai Hlaing went missing.

Both young men had disappeared into Myanmar's gulag, a network of prisons and interrogation centres used for decades to detain and torture dissidents.

At its heart is Insein prison, a name that has come to symbolise the repression imposed by successive military regimes. That is where Phyo Wai Hlaing and Si Thu Aung first went after being sentenced to seven years in prison.

 

FULL STORY

[Purdey]

Still, Thailand plays no role in encouraging Burma to become civilized. 

[Sydebolle]

So nothing changed since 1962 then ........ ????