20 people die in military-held Burmese prison after asking for medical aid

At least 20 detainees are believed to have lost their lives as a result of the crackdown by Burma’s security forces on Friday’s protest at Insein prison in Rangoon, the opposition channel Democratic Voice of Burma reports.

According to the media outlet, which cites a person close to the military as a source, soldiers fired at detainees to quell the protest, killing five women and 15 men.

The men in uniform have taken control of the penitentiary, where hundreds of political prisoners remain incarcerated, and they arrested some of the security personnel who had joined the protest, the Burmese channel reported last night.

The protest was started friday morning in a female module with the purpose of asking for health care due to the worsening pandemic inside the prison and spread rapidly throughout the compound, the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP) reported.

The prisoners also issued proclamations against the military junta which seized power in a February 1 coup and jailed the country’s main Democratic leaders, including Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

The AAPP said the protest was silenced after several military vehicles arrived at the prison.

Several embassies, such as that of the United States and the European Union, urged Friday evening in a joint statement addressed to the competent Burmese authorities “to resolve the situation in a peaceful manner and respecting the fundamental rights to health care of those detained there and other prisons “. ”.

To the brutal repression of the security forces, who shot dead peaceful demonstrators and caused the death of at least 931 people, is added the uncontrolled outbreak of the pandemic in Burma, linked to the delta variant.

INTERNATIONAL CONCERN

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed its “to worry” due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in Burma, including the situation in the country’s prisons.

The international organization said in a statement that “Closely follows” published information on virus outbreaks in prisons, including Insein prison in Rangoon, where dozens of political prisoners are held.

ICRC representatives are in dialogue with the prison authorities “to resume visits and purely humanitarian activities in places of detention, including the Insein”.

Health authorities, now under military command, recorded 5,657 new cases of covid-19 and 297 deaths on Saturday, bringing the total to 264,527, including 6,756 deaths.

According to groups of doctors, the official data does not reflect the reality of the country, with a limited daily capacity of between 12,000 and 15,000 tests to detect the virus among its 55 million inhabitants, to which must be added the collapse of hospitals, lack of oxygen and mistrust of the military regime.

On Tuesday, politician Nyan Win, 78, a former lawyer and confidant of ousted leader Suu Kyi and an important figure in the overthrown National League for Democracy party, died after contracting the virus while in Insein.

The army justifies the coup with alleged electoral fraud in the November elections, in which the party led by Suu Kyi was destroyed, as in 2015, and the results of which were endorsed by international observers.

(with information from the EFE)

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