Appendix 18

Yin Yin May worked as an information officer at the British Embassy in Rangoon. In 1989 and 1990, while she was doing her duty of collecting information on Burmese political situations and reporting to an Embassy officer, the military intelligence officers arrested her several times to interrogate her.
They wanted to know what information she was reporting to the Embassy officials. She was persuaded and pressured to accompany the military intelligence.
At the end of 1990, then a leader of the military regime Gen. Khin Nyunt (now the Prime Minister of the SPDC) gave a letter to a leader of National League for Democracy. There were prohibitions against political movements of NLD in that letter. Later, the regime arrested many NLD leaders accused of leaking the information in that letter.
Yin Yin May was arrested on November 16 and accused of participating in that leaking information. Three days later, on November 19, she was tried in the military court in Insein. That day, she was sentenced at once to 3-year imprisonment.
After the sentence, she was sent to the prison lesson room, which was the torture room for new prisoners. Yin Yin May recalled to a female student who was also arrested and imprisoned for participating in political movements in Burma. They sent her to the lesson room after the sentence. The room was so dirty, filthy and foul that she could not sleep all night long. She was sent there for two days and had to spend those two nights sitting.
Yin Yin May was pregnant when she was arrested, but she only noticed that she was pregnant several days after she arrived in Insein prison. She was so shocked when she noticed that because she was well aware of the difficulties for a pregnant person in notorious Insein prison. That time she was over 40 years of age.
While she was in pregnant, the military intelligence officers interrogated her many times. Therefore, even a female prison officer asked her "You were imprisoned Nita. Why you were interrogated many times?"
She experienced the problems while pregnant in prison: the burning summer, not enough water to drink and to clean herself with, and malnutrition. Therefore, she requested the prison doctor that she wanted to give birth in a hospital outside the prison.
On June 29, 1991, she had birth pains at 9:00 in the evening. At midnight, she could not bear the pain so the female political prisoners who were with her informed the prison authorities. At about two or three in the morning, the prison doctor arrived after the series of reports to the authorities. He commented that she would give birth soon. Later they started preparing to send her to the hospital outside the prison. She had to sign 11 papers to get permission to go out while she was almost fainted because of the pain. The prison doctor told her, "We are responsible for you. It will take only 15 minutes to get to Insein Township Hospital, don't worry."
But she was sent to the hospital at five in the morning when the prison main gate was opened. She was brought to the hospital by a provision truck.
She had to pull up onto the truck. There was a female warden with her. She was sent to hospital in the front seat and might have miscarried in the car and I might also have post partum flow of blood. Later she claimed to have been treated not as a human but as an animal.
After giving birth, she had to spend a week in Insein Township hospital. She was very reluctant in deciding whether it was good for her baby to be in her house or with her in prison. She decided to send the baby to his father outside and went back to the prison first. When the due date was near she did not want to give birth. She was happy with the baby in her womb because she had decided they would be away from each other after birth. After spending time with the baby, she did not want them to part and the decision was a difficult one. Yin Yin May recalled the decision as being the hardest of her life.
She was released on April 26th, 1992 by the General Amnesty. After she was released, the authorities prohibited her to write, to teach, or leave the Rangoon area for one year.
A month after she was released, she worked again for the British Embassy in Rangoon.
Even though she was released, a military intelligence officer came to Yin Yin May's house everyday to watch her closely.
She explained her health condition after being released as follows. She was in the delicate state of health after childbirth, and was sent back to her cell. After her release one leg was like a stick, and she could not fold it because she had to sleep and sit on the concrete floor for a long time. Once outside, she tried very hard to heal the leg with exercises, swimming, and medicines."
Eventually, she got a job at BBC and left Burma. On the flight to England, she experienced a shock over concerns about the military intelligence. During the night, a stewardess gave her a blanket and a pillow to sleep. She also gave a mask to Yin Yin May to cover the light because there were lights on the plane. Yin Yin may was so shocked she threw out the mask. She was shivering because she remembered that the military intelligence would force her to be masked whenever they arrested her. The stewardess apologized to Yin Yin May instantly. Yin Yin May explained that it was her own problem. Yin Yin May tried so hard to concentrate but she could not try to sleep with the mask.
She started working for BBC. One evening, when she returned home from work, she heard the noise of steps behind her. Yin Yin May thought a person was following her. She thought she had been followed in Rangoon and even in England she was under watch again by the military intelligence. The time was 11 in the evening and there were very few people in the streets. But Yin Yin May did not look back because she was so afraid of being attacked. She looked back while she was trying to open the door of her house. No one was behind her. The noise was from the keychain on her backpack while she was walking. She thought it was the noise of steps following her. Frequently, former political prisoners suffer from hysteria like Yin Yin May. Moreover, Yin Yin May sometimes dreams about her prison life.
But Yin Yin May insisted that she did not regret her prison years. She said that everybody could experience good with joy, but nobody wants to be in a bad situation. She was sure she could profit from sharing hellish life with comrades.
In England, she was asked frequently if she was sorry about her prison life and bad experiences or not under the despotic Burmese regime. She explained how she was an information officer at British Embassy in Rangoon when there was an enormous democratic revolution in her country. People believed in her and informed her on important news, and she had a very good chance to raise awareness to the world. She appreciated the job and what it did for her country. She said that she never would have forgiven herself if she had done nothing.