Appendix 6

I was arrested for the first time at my home at 10:00pm on December 15, 1991. Although I tried to bring a few clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, and necessities for a woman, I was not allowed. They told my family and me, "No need to have those things as the interrogation will take only one night. We will send her back tomorrow morning."

I was in the interrogation center for three days and three nights. I was tortured without sleep in the interrogation period and sat on armless chairs. After that, I was sent to Insein prison. I was placed in isolated confinement. There was a mat, a blanket, an earthen water pot and a plastic cup in the cell. I used water from the pot for drinking, washing my hands, face, and plate after eating, and even cleaning my body after using the toilet. I was provided a twenty-inch diameter earthen bowl for toilet. Prisoners who were assigned for the cell excrement cleaning worked two times a day for a cell. Normally, they did it at 6:00 in the morning and 4:00 in the evening. One filled the water pot at the same time. I had no extra clothes, so the jailer gave me a coarse cotton cloth sarong and a traditional Burmese jacket. The jail authorities provided a 1" x 2" x 1" piece of soap for a week. I used this small piece of soap for washing my hands, body, clothes and food plate as well. My clothes were hung in the cell without touching any sunlight after washing. Although there was no place to hang clothes in the cell, we had to. The clothes smelled of fungus. Only the upper part of the door, covered with iron netting, ventilated the cell. The cell smelled of excrement after I used the toilet. I needed to control my body mechanism to do my toilet within a few minutes before sewerage cleaning time. The toilet bowl was not big enough, so it was filled after urinating one or two times.

I slept with plenty of bugs that lived on the mat. I was bitten by those bugs by sleeping on the mat.

There was no alternative underwear to wear while my only one panty was washed and wet. I used to face many problems during my period. I had no sanitary wears, extra panties, or even a piece of cloth to pad. Another problem in period was I was needed to control using water for body cleaning because of the toilet bowl size. Otherwise the bowl was filled before sewerage cleaning time and water overflowed on the floor. There were the bed, drinking water pot, wet clothes and toilet in no ventilation 8' and 10' wide cell. It affected my health. I was so upset during this time. Women contracted diseases because of fungus from underwear. I was in the cell about 120 days under these bad situations.

I was sent to a ward after I was sentenced to twelve years. There were many different troubles in the ward. I had only one and a half foot wide place to sleep every night because many people were placed in the ward. Once I lay on the floor to sleep, my skin touched both the people sleeping beside me. Prisoners easily contracted Tuberculosis, skin diseases like scabies, and other infectious diseases in the prison while we were sleeping. Besides, we were not able to clean our bodies well because we were allowed to use only six cups for having bath. So we were susceptible to all kinds of diseases.

In the morning at about 5:00 am, we received a cup of rice soup. We received two meals at 9:00 am and 4:00 pm. The meal usually contained with a plate of rice, a piece of fish paste and a small amount of vegetable soup or pea soup. The so-called vegetable soup didn’t have salt. I didn’t see any leaves in the soup. Some pieces of vegetable stem (stalk) were boiled to make the soup. The pea soup was also tasteless because it lacked salt. The peas were not properly boiled. As a result, the pea seeds were hard. The smell of the pea soup clearly suggested that it was improperly cooked. That was our lunch as well as dinner. How could those dishes contain the vitamins for a person? Sometimes, we found worms, lizards, a piece of gunny twine, rubber rings and different sorts of rubbish in the soup. Still, how could we throw away “the soup”? We ate it after removing the rubbish.

The toilet for the prisoners in the ward was a ditch with a roof and covered one side. Under the roof, a small and short partition was made on the ditch. As not enough water was provided in the prison, prisoners could not clean their excrement after using the toilet. The time excrement was collected in the ditch, large volumes of water were poured from the start of the ditch. Then, the sewage was drifted down along the ditch. It was one of the sources that carried diseases to prisoners.

Prison medical officers were not doctors. They finished medical training only. The MO used only a hypodermic needle and a syringe full of penicillin for injecting many prisoners. They did not use disposable syringes or needles. Prisoners unable to keep their own disposable needles could not avoid that. The authorities ignored these problems. Prisoners could not have proper medical treatment as their health worsened.

I was detained again in June 2003 because I had contacts with some NLD members and helped them when they were harboring some of their members who were eyewitness of Depayin Massacre. They came to me asking for help. I met with them in a teashop to discuss our plans. They had been chased by MI. They were arrested the next day, and I was arrested three days after that. MI came to my office and they searched my office and computer data. Then, they brought me to my house and searched it again. After that, I was sent to an interrogation center, although they did not see anything suspicious at my office or home. I was interrogated the whole night. I was suspected of collecting the people who had evaded the Depayin massacre and helping them contact an embassy in Burma. I was asked why I met with the NLD members and what we talked in the teashop. Fortunately, I did not give any money to my friends at the teashop. Ma Tin Tin Nyo, who was arrested with her daughter three days before me, was a member of the NLD. She covered for me. I had a chance to talk to her a few seconds when we were interrogated. She told me, "I will protect you from imprisonment, even giving my life." She used those words – "my life" and immediately passed out. While we were talking, we were separated immediately by MI. A few seconds later, I heard some noises and her daughter calling, "Mommy, Mommy." "Mommy's sick with heart disease." MI were so busy with her they stopped interrogations for a while. About thirty minutes later, the interrogator declared, "She's okay." The following day, I was released. I was sent to my office even though I asked them to send me to my home. They took a signature of my boss as a witness on an official letter for sending me back.

Before that, I was briefed by the MI officers. I was asked not to engage in political movements, not to support activists. They told me, "If you are rich, you'd better make a donation to someone else. You should not help the political movement. If you do so you will be arrested again. If you gave some money to Daw Tin Tin Nyo at the teashop, you would not be released now. We watched you all at that moment. You were very lucky. We planned to arrest you all there but our communication link was cut unexpectedly."

Daw Tin Tin Nyo's daughter was released after me. But Ma Tin Tin Nyo and Thein Naing Oo, who was a NLD member also, were given for seven years imprisonment after I left Burma. It was my second experience.

I decided to leave because of the above mentioned case. It was not possible for me to leave the country legally. I applied for a passport two times before I was arrested the second time. It was rejected by Special Branch both times. I missed some chances to go abroad to attend trainings concerning my profession. When I got to the passport section to take a photo for my passport application, I coincidentally met with a woman who watched us in the interrogation center. She is an employee of SB. I first met her at Rangoon University as my friend's classmate before I was detained in 1991. In the class, she had told me that she was a government employee. One late evening about 5:00 pm, she said she had to go back to work. So, I was surprised because there were no government jobs in the evening. So, I asked her, "What job do you need to work in late evening?" But she did not answer me. When I saw her in the interrogation center I was surprised, and she too seemed to feel bad for meeting us in there. When I met her in the interrogation center, I remembered that conversation.

When I met her in Passport Section, she asked me, "Will you apply for a passport? I said, "Yes". She asked, "Do you think you will get one?" I replied, "I don't know, but I have to try." Finally, I was rejected.

At my job, all managers held passports and were able to go abroad. I did not have a passport and I missed some changes to go out. I received an offer to attend a training from a hotel training center, but I could not attend because I had no passport. Normally, someone who works in a company can apply for a passport for business purposes. I didn't want to have any problem at my workplace concerning my previous political activities, so I did not dare to apply using my company name.

Actually, I did not really want to leave the country unofficially. At the same time, I do not want to spend my time in the prison. After I was freed the second time, my parents were worried. I had to go back home once I finished my job. Everyday, my parents felt bad before they saw me. Because I had been arrested at work, they did not want me to contact even my close friends. They worried all the time. Eleven years before, I was arrested when a car stopped in front of our house. Whenever they heard the noise of a car engine they listened until the car passed far away from our house and sighed. They were free from worry for a moment. I felt the same way. At work, although I felt comfortable while I was working, once I received the call from the Military Intelligence I was afraid I would be detained again. After I was released, the intelligence called my office often and asked about my friend who had been hiding from them. They needed her, too. Finally, I decided to leave.