Appendix 8

After I was arrested beside Shwe Gon cinema in Rangoon, I was veiled with a blanket and taken to an interrogation center. I was pushed into a room. There was a small couch and a piece of cloth was on it. That piece of cloth was very dirty - stinky, foul and smelling of blood. I was veiled with that on my face.
Two military intelligence personnel knocked on the door and told me to be veiled when they entered. I was pulled out of the room by my hands. I heard the terrible voices of beatings, shouts, pleas and crying when I passed the other rooms.
After that, I think I was in a hall. I was ordered to sit on a very small stool by a table. It was hard to sit on that stool because the seat was small as a palm, but it was so high that my feet could not touch the floor. I had to sit on that torture stool for hours. I was hit on the temple when they started questioning me. They questioned me for four hours. I was exhausted and could not sit on that stool anymore. Even when I said, "Change the stool. I can't sit anymore,” they did not care. They slapped my face hard when I said any words they did not like. By slapping, when the cloth on my face was to fall down, one of them ran to me and tightened it again so that I would not see their faces. They woke me up at four in the morning and questioned me until eleven in the evening. During meal times, they knocked on the door from outside and left a bowl of rice on the floor. When the door was opened, I had to be veiled. Being questioned after two days, I told them in the evening to change the stool. I said “Change that stool at once or I won't answer your questions. I am pregnant; I cannot sit on that small stool anymore.” Fortunately, they changed that stool for me. I was lucky for being pregnant.
Having been questioned for twelve days in this manner, I was sent to Insein prison, where they ordered me not to talk to anyone. I was put in a solitary confinement for three months.

While in solitary confinement, they brought me to the office of the prison warden. I met a female judge of Hlaing Tsp. She told me her name, which I no longer remember. She asked me if my answers in the interrogation center were right or not. My answer was, “Yes.” After that, I was sent back to my cell at once.
The day I was in the solitary confinement for three months, I was put into a prison van and taken to the military court in front of the main gate of Insein prison. They accused me of being guilty of connecting with the opposition insurgent groups near the border. I was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment under Act 17(1).
I gave birth in prison on March 7, 1990. Unfortunately, I had birthing pains when my ward was closed. Doctor Soe Kyi, who was the prison doctor that time, did not come to see me and sent Thein San, the medical officer of the prison, instead. It was so difficult for me to give birth that I asked for Dr. Toe Toe Tin and Dr. Aye Aye Cho of NLD, who were in my ward also, to give me a hand. But they were not allowed to come to me. I had to give birth with only Thein San, a female prisoner in charge of my ward, by the name of Daw Kyee Kan and a girl called Mi Lone.
I was not sent to the hospital, and I did not demand that. In fact, I did not know I had the right to demand to be taken to the hospital. Mi Lone pushed my belly extremely hard to give birth, which is why I am now barren. If I had given birth my baby in any hospital outside of the prison, I would not have gotten that disease. I had to give birth to my baby with many difficulties.
I was not given any cloth or clothes for my baby. It was very hard to clean my baby because there was not enough water for bathing and washing clothes. I was not allowed to use water. During bathing time, I had to wash clothes with bath water only. When I use only a bowl of clean water, I was beaten by well in charge Khin San Yi.
Uncle Bo Set Yong passed away at seven in the morning the same day I gave birth. I got pain at seven in the evening to give birth. His wife Daw Khin yi and daughter Khin Nhin Yi were in the prison together with me. They were brought only to see the corpse at the main entry of the women ward compound. That time Daw Khin Yi only said, "A comrade has gone away,” without tears, and then came back.
Khin Nhin Yi T was sentenced to 10 years and Daw Khin Yi 5 years. Daw Khin Yi was suffering diabetes. She was in solitary confinement and she had many skin lesions. She demanded boiled water to clean them and to take medicine but she got nothing.
Sane May was also in solitary confinement, even though she had hypertension and suffered a stroke.
There was a big demonstration in prison. The prison authorities crushed that demonstration by turning on loud music with loudspeakers, and beating the demonstrators brutally while pointing at them with guns. The female political prisoners, Nhin Nhin Mhway, A goum, Thida Aye, Ohnmar, Baby and Hla Hla Than were beaten severely and were transferred to Thayarwaddy prison with blood strained clothes.
The female political prisoners were also assigned to polish floors and guard the vegetable farms. The female prisoners who were accused of connecting with the illegal opposition groups and imprisoned were ordered to clean the sewage water trenches and to stand guard by the wells. It was tiring work in the burning sun. Most prisoners did not have to do these duties. The prison authorities called out the prisoners who refused to do them to take baths in the sunshine amid the afternoon. Older prisoners of 55 years old and 60 years old were also among those to take baths. Old ladies, who were in bad health, had diabetes and skin conditions, were ordered to take baths at 2 in the afternoon in the burning sun. They were in big trouble but had to obey because they were threatened with beatings.
We were taken out of our cells for interrogations again a month before the 1992 Amnesty. We were brought in the nighttime and were asked many questions, such as “What will you do if you are released? What will you demand if you are still in prison?” Ma Mya Yi, San San Aye and five or six other prisoners were not released. They responded to the questions with answers like, “I will participate in any political movements again if I am released. The prison situation is hazardous and prisoners have to eat improper meals.” When female prisoners were asked they were taken veiled and there were no women wardens to ask questions. Some young female prisoners were sexually harassed. I was released in 1993.
When there was a bombing at the tooth relic of Buddha show, the regime arrested former political prisoners who used to have contact with the illegal opposition groups along the border areas. Capt. Ye Kyaw Thu and Capt. Myint Swe of No.7 Military Intelligence also arrested me. Ma Mi, who was together with me in prison, was arrested all together with her entire family; even her 12-year-old daughter was not left. They were beaten brutally in the interrogation center for 25 days. I was arrested again on September 6th, 1998 and was sent to Ye Mon. I was there for 8 months.