Appendix 4

I have participated in politics as an ordinary person since the 1988 Democracy Uprising. I became a member of the National League for Democracy when the Tharkayta Office was set up. I participated in party organizing movements in my township to win the election. I was involved in all the movements of the NLD, Tharkayta Branch, in our township.
I was arrested at about eleven in the evening on June 30, 1996 when the Women Branch of the Tharkayta NLD was set up and I was made the secretary of the Branch. My township authorities and the MI came my house to arrest me, but they showed me no warrant. They took me to an interrogation center saying only, “We have something to ask you, come with us for a moment to our office.” I was ordered to sit in a car with two female guards. While I was in the car, the police and the authorities searched my house inch by inch.
I was arrested because I distributed the photos, audiotapes and videotapes of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s speeches to people who were interested in politics. The MI wanted to arrest me for distributing and selling photos of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but they had no documents. They could not arrest me because these photos were being sold in shops. They kept an eye on me, but I did not know this and kept on doing my duties. Whenever Daw Aung San Suu Kyi came out of her house to make speeches, I led listeners to pray for her. Therefore, the MI accused me of trying to incite chaos. I was imprisoned because of praying for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
After the arrest, I was veiled and taken to a place. I did not know where or what the place was, but I thought this might be a MI interrogation center. When I arrived there, I heard the noises of planes. I was put in a cell, which was like a prison cell. My veil was taken off when I was put in the cell. I did not know my whereabouts.
I was arrested alone and I had no casemates. I came to know that before my arrest, the MI had arrested a man called Mya Han. He might not be a member of the NLD. He was arrested and accused of shouting good wishes for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at the front of her compound. Although he was not my casemate, he was connected with my case when we were put on trial.
The interrogation lasted for a week. During the interrogation, I was not beaten but was questioned frequently. I was not interrogated ruthlessly. I have an experience about my son to tell, though. My son had been arrested when he was 19. He had been taken from my home in 1991. He had been arrested because of his participation in student movements. He had been sent to Insein prison after 11 days in the MI interrogation center. He had been released later. He had been detained for a total of 28 days. He had said nothing to me, but told his friend that he had been beaten severely in the MI interrogation center. He had had a chronic heart disease. After the interrogation, he had been in the hospital three times. He had been arrested in October 1991, and he passed away in January 1992 due to the beating he received.
I remembered my son’s experience, and so I answered wisely. I did not respond to them during the interrogation. They became very angry with me because they did not get the answers they wanted from me. When they questioned me, I answered “No” and pretended I was not important. I answered, “I am responsible for nothing and I went to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s alone.”
During the interrogation, I was offered rice and there were always two bottles of water in my cell. Ko Mya Han was next door to me, and sometimes I heard the beating, groaning and shouting from there. I was interrogated by the male intelligence personnel. But in the evening, there were two female guards outside of my cell.
After a week in the interrogation center, I was ordered to prepare my belongings. In the evening, I was blindfolded and taken out to a car. I was sent to Insein prison.
I was thoroughly searched at the main gate of Insein prison, and I was sent to the female cellblock at once. Myat Mo Mo Tun, her mother Daw San San Nweh, Cho Nwe Oo, Moe Kalyar Oo, and Aye Aye Moe were in the cellblock then. I was not allowed to go out and was only taken out to take a bath at prison closing times. I was not allowed to communicate with the others in the cellblock.
Later, I was taken out of my cell and was questioned if I knew Ko Mya Han or not. When I answered “No”, I was put in my cell again. I was taken out again after I had spent 42 days in the cell. I was put on trial in the compound of Insein prison, in the so-called Special Court. The court brought witnesses from Bahan Township, and these witnesses were the chairperson and the secretary of the Peace and Development Council, Bahan Township. I was sentenced to seven years in prison because of the testimony of these unfair witnesses, who accused me of shouting and organizing people and causing disorder.
I was charged under the Emergency Provision Act, Section 5 (J) on August 16, 1996. I was put on trial only one time on August 16 and was sentenced at once. I was not allowed to obtain my own lawyers and was not given my legal right to defend myself. My family and friends were also not allowed to be present at the court.
My family did not know about my whereabouts and the prison authorities did not inform them of anything. A female prisoner in my cellblock informed my family through her family visit and my family came to know my story. Soon after the sentence, I was moved from the cellblock to No. 8 ward, where ordinary female prisoners were placed.
I was very uncomfortable there. The difficulty was there were drug case prisoners, thieves and vagrants in the ward. I was put in that ward to live with these criminals, and the female wardens treated me as one of them. There was a very bad female warden called Thet Thet Mon. She treated me as a criminal. She recognized the political prisoners in the cellblocks as political prisoners, but she did not recognize the political prisoners in wards. She treated the political prisoners in the ward as vagrants. I was very upset, and resented of being treated as a criminal.
There were also difficulties during my family visits. There was a quarrel during my family visit. Some wardens did not allow for food supported by my family. Then, I was very angry and said, “Take it all, I will not take my food.” They tried to punish me when I retorted to them. They asked me, “What is your name and which is your ward?” The wardens who took my food gave all my food back when I answered I was a 5 (J) prisoner in the No. 8 ward.
I was allowed to take a bath once a day in the ward. I was offered the same food as criminals, a bowl of brownish red rice and bean soup that was like water for lunch and rice and boiled vegetables for dinner. The prison food completely lacked nutrition.
For my health in the prison, I had to keep my own medicine. I requested that family bring the medicines I needed. The prison was responsible for every prisoner’s health. But they ignored all the prisoners’ health. Even I did not want their treatment, so I kept my own medicine.
The prison was normally opened at seven in the morning, but one day my ward was not opened until after seven. There were over 300 prisoners in my ward and the noise was becoming louder. When my ward was opened, a female warden, Maw Maw, struck everyone twice with a cane. I did not want to be beaten because I was a political prisoner amongst criminals. Therefore, I did not go out of my ward. I thought everything was fine and I would not be beaten when ward was opened again, and so I went out. But I was wrong, I was beaten with a cane by that warden. I was very angry because I felt I was humiliated.
During my prison life in the ward, I experienced many of the diseases of ordinary prisoners I had never heard of before. Many female prisoners were undernourished, walking very slowly and shuffling. I felt I was in hell. The then superintendent of Insein prison was Shwe Kyaw. Daw Ohnmar Oo, Daw Ohnmar Shwe and Daw Tin Ma Gyi were the female prison officers then.
During my prison term, the International Committee of Red Cross, ICRC, came to visit Insein prison four or five times. Before the ICRC visits, the prison was very strict. After the visits, the prison conditions improved little by little. Bathing, food and living conditions in prison were changed. But, I never received a single thing donated by the ICRC. I was released from Insein prison on October 26, 2001 under Section 401 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
After my release, my family and relatives warmly welcomed me because they were also politically active. But some friends who were not in the political community did not dare to deal with me, a former political prisoner. They were so afraid and thought they would be arrested if they dealt with me.
The MI did not harm my social or economic life after my release because I ran my own business and there was no reason for them to harass me. I did not want to deal with the MI, so I earned my living separate from them even though they frequently came to me, questioned me and watched me.