For Immediate Release: November 7, 2006

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) was founded by former political prisoners who served several years behind bars in Burma. We have been constantly monitoring Burmese prisons and the situation for political prisoners in prison, and reporting our findings to international human rights groups.
On November 2, 2006, the military regime in Burma held a press conference at which the regime's information committee explained about the health care situation inside prisons, as well as prisoners' rights.
The AAPP would like to state clearly that the statements made at the press conference consisted entirely of false information. The intent was to conceal the authorities' responsibility and thus try to blatantly deceive the Burmese people as well as the international community.

2. Care System Inside Prisons
The Prison Department is wholly responsible for taking care of prisoners’ health care, medical treatment, food and hygiene, and accommodation. However, the department is not able to provide for prisoners sufficiently, and thus runs with external support.
Due to poor prison conditions, the International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) has been investigating prison conditions in Burma and making donations since May 1998. The ICRC has already provided much support for prisoners' health care. Furthermore, the ICRC has also provided travel costs and other necessary support to the families of political prisoners, enabling them to make prison visits.
However, the ICRC was banned from visiting prisons on December 12, 2005. Thus, political prisoners have lost the support of the ICRC. This is an attempt to deprive political prisoners of external connection and support.
The press conference mentioned that the so-called 'social organizations' such as the People's Power Organization (Swan Ar Shin) and the Union Solidarity and Development Association had contributed to the cost of feeding the prisoners, but it failed to mention the ICRC. According to the 2005 report of the ICRC, it made donations to Burmese prisons that covered 50 per cent of all health care and soup in Burma’s prisons and labor camps. It is a great loss for prisoners as these donations have been frozen completely.

3. True Condition inside Kale Prison
Kale Prison is located in a remote area with harsh weather. Almost all the prisoners and prison personnel at Kale Prison contract malaria. This disease infects people there due to the lack of mosquito nets, insufficient water and poor hygiene. As there is not enough water inside the prison, water must be carried from outside the prisons. As a result, prisoners are allowed to have showers only once every two or three days and are rarely allowed to wash their clothes.
Political prisoner Thet Win Aung contracted malaria within months after being transferred to Kalay Prison. Later, he also contracted other diseases. One political prisoner Khin Maung Myint died from malaria in Kale Prison on July 21, 2000. (The authorities never released medical records concerning his death.)
Although there is a hospital inside Kale Prison, there is no prison doctor. There is only one warder who acts as the medical in-charge, and two other prisoners without medical experience who act as nurses. Prisoners are not enable to enjoy medication donated by the ICRC. In one instance in Kale prison, while the Director of the prison department was inspecting the prison, political prisoners, including Thet Win Aung, reported about the lack of medication. No solution was found to remedy this problem. Instead, the Deputy Director asked them to understand and accept the situation as the prison department has a very small budget to manage things because … not only our department, but the entire country itself is poor.'
In Kale Prison, the prison Superintendent U Myint Swe forced political prisoners to sleep on the bare cement floor and confiscated political prisoners' belongings, such as medicine, food, blanket, clothes and books, which they had received from their families after proper authorization. He even intimidated them, saying that 'We don't care even if you prisoners make complaints to the ICRC!'
Due to the harsh condition and lack of rights, prisoners requested their rights repeatedly from the prison authorities. They were denied. As a result, 11 prisoners, including Thet Win Aung, went on a hunger strike in early May 2002. Four days later, Thet Win Aung was moved to Hkhamti prison. Another political prisoner,, Khin Maung Lwin who also was among those transfer, died in Myitkyina Prison on January 11, 2006. (The authority never released medical records concerning his death.)

4. Concerning the Death of Thet Win Aung
Concerning the death of Thet Win Aung, in the press conference, no account of when he became unconscious before his death was made. The obvious fact is that only 15 minutes before his death, the 2nd prison officer, U Aye Kyu, reported his case and then the prison doctor came to check on him. The entire time interval, from the time of the report to the time the doctor arrived, examined him and gave him treatment was as short as five minutes. This makes obvious the fact that the authorities concerned did not care or give proper treatment to Thet Win Aung.
The records shown during the press conference only mentioned that Thet Win Aung suffered various health problems, such as scabies, colds, fevers and hypertension while in Kalay Prison, but failed to mention 'malaria', the major illness he had contracted. Also, it concealed his suffering, such as general weakness in his nervous system and damage to his central nervous system, which resulted from the malaria. Thus, it is obvious that the medical records presented by the regime's information committee are not correct or reliable regarding the death of Thet Win Aung.
Harsh torture during the investigation, long term imprisonment, transfer to remote prisons far away from families, lack of sufficient medical treatment, lack of prisoners’ rights, solitary confinement, and lack of the right to exercise- all these facts clearly show the mental as well as physical torture inside prisons.
The Ministry for Information said that '… although some have been sentenced to death under the laws, not one of them has ever been executed.' No one has not been executed officially, but many deaths have resulted from severe torture, inadequate medical treatment, and even wrong injections. According to our figures, the death-toll of political prisoners who have died in interrogation camps, prisons, labor camps and the frontlines is 131 to date, a figure higher than any in the past history of Burma.
In conclusion, it is obvious that the military regime in Burma is constantly imprisoning and torturing its citizens, regarding them as enemies, though they are striving for national reconciliation and democracy. Still, the military regime however continuously propagates among the people and to the international community that it is implementing to transform democracy. Therefore, we would like to state that we will continue our mission, in collaboration with all the individuals and organizations striving for democracy in Burma, for political prisoners' rights and also for the release of all political prisoners in Burma.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)