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My prison university student life
As a result of the stress, most of the student political prisoners
suffered from heart disease. With the lack of food and medicine,
their situation got worse. Gradually, our study improved even under
the tight situation Everyone's complaint in prison was that if they
had the right to study openly, the4ir learning would increase very
swiftly. It made us all more hurt and angry towards the junta. Sometime
we felt so sad for our families, because although they thought we
ate and drank the milk powder, sugar and snacks they sent, we had
no chance to eat or drink them as we had to use them to buy the
books we needed. We lied to our families that we used them.
We decided to speak in English to each other but we were not sure
whether our pronunciation was right or wrong. We also decided to
choose English novels and English books that would be useful for
our movement and the future, such as politics, business, sociology
and technology books. However the problem was how to store a large
number of books, if we could smuggle them in. So we had to think
about the best way for keeping the books.
Until 7 July 1996, above our cellblock there was a hall where Thai
prisoners lived. Some of the Thai prisoners were used as domestic
labourers in the prison. They had to work in the horticulture area
that surrounded the cellblock, as well as deliver some meals and
water to prisoners and massage warders.
We chose two places to store the books-in the horticulture field
and also in our cells. With help from the Thai prisoners and the
warders, we arranged for secret holes to be dug in the field next
to the side wall of our cell. The warders who were helping us passed
a message to the Thai prisoners to dig the holes, and then passed
the pages of the books to them to be buried. We had to make sure
that the rain would not ruin the pages so we wrapped them in plastic
bags before they were buried. To do this we had to ask the Warders
to bring us new plastic, as old plastic bags could leak. We also
managed to label them so that we could request that specific pages
be dug up for us later.
In the horticulture field the Thais prisoners actively helped us
to hide our books. In relation to hiding books in our cells, however,
we had to try very hard to obtain help from the warders. The most
difficult thing was to choose the right warder, because if he refused
to help us after hearing our request it would be dangerous for us.
Finally the warder we chose helped to smuggle in two small instruments
to make a small hole on the floor and side wall to the cell. For
the whole day we tried to make a small hole. AT that time the warder
who had helped us patrolled outside our cell, and if someone passed
through he informed us in advance and we had to stop for a while.
The cell wall was three bricks in thickness. We managed to remove
one of the bricks, forming a cavity where we could store our pages.
We covered the cavity with a thin piece of brick and some mortar
to make it look realistic.
In that way we successfully kept our materials and studied regularly,
but under conditions of high stress and worry. If the search group
found the cavity we would be severely punished and our prison terms
would be extended for another seven years, because according to
the prison rules any hole made in the cell is deemed to be a jailbreak.
We informed other cellblocks, even Insein main jail, of our method
with the help of some warders. However hiding anything in the cells
had to stop in November 1995 because the authorities found the cavities
in cellblocks 3 and 4 in the main jail. As soon as we found our
about this we had to block the hole in our cell urgently. We managed
to get the papers out through a warder, who also brought us cement
and small stones to fill the whole. The brick was not the same colour
as the rest of the wall, so we had to use lime to colour it. Three
days later the special searching group came to our cellblock but
saw nothing in the cell. I still remember that at time we were all
worried and could not sleep or eat well.
Many political prisoners in cellblocks 3 and 4, including U Win
Tin, were given another seven years imprisonment because of this.
After that we didn't hide the books in the cells, but could still
rely on the books from outside our cellblock until 7 July 1996.
Prior to this the authorities in some way, but they did not know
how. A warder had also been found with seven pages in his possession,
and was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. He had not revealed
who he was helping.
On 7 July the cell was opened early and we were told to take showers.
The same thing was done with the Thai prisoners. We all went to
the shower area but there was hardly any water. The area was very
crowded, and some prisoners provoked a fight between the Thais and
the political prisoners. We later learned that the authorities had
arranged for a few Thai prisoners to start the fight. The fight
became a brawl, but some of the Thai and political prisoners realized
that this should not happen and tried to stop it. At this stage
the brawl changed, so that it was between Thai prisoners and warders.
Then the warders beat all prisoners in the jail. The Thai prisoners
were told to explain how they had been helping the political prisoners.
The ones who had been helping us refused to say anything, but some
others who knew what was going on the authorities about the horticulture
field. All the Thai prisoners were transferred to the main prison,
and 200 warders from other prisons were brought in to search the
horticulture field. Two of the warders who had helped us managed
to escape before they were caught.
The prison was declared to be under martial law, which meant that
there could be not talking at all between prisoners had to be blindfolded
when leaving their cells, and guns were trained on prisoners 24
hours a day. We also had to sit our in front of us for three hours,
however, and the authorities dared not extend the sentences of all
200 political prisoners. In the end they began to transfer prisoners
to other prisons around the country, so that we could not communicate
as a group.
All of this happened on 7 July, which is also a very important
day in Burmese history. On 7 July 1962 the military junta demolished
the Student Union building by blowing it up. On 7 July 1996 the
prison authorities burned all our books and study materials. After
six years of collecting books, it took the authorities the whole
night the burn the collection. Finally the Prison University of
Insein Special Jail was closed forever.
In Burma there is a saying that as long as there is no free market,
the black market will exist. Similarly, as long as the prison authorities
forbid students from studying and reading, they will find ways to
do so.
Endnotes
I for a report of the trial of the 22 political prisoners from cellblocks
3 and 4 concerned, see Pleading Not Guilty in Insein, published
by ABSDF (February 1997).
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