Striking with Their Lives
covering burma and southeast asia
Friday, March 29, 2024
Feature

FEATURE

Striking with Their Lives


By KYAW ZWA MOE Saturday, November 5, 2011


COMMENTS (2)
RECOMMEND (390)
FACEBOOK
TWITTER
PLUSONE
 
MORE
E-MAIL
PRINT
(Page 2 of 3)

On May 17, seven days after their strike began, Thein Htoo learned that Aung Kyaw Moe, one of his fellow strikers, had died. He and the other strikers found out later that Aung Kyaw Moe resisted force-feeding and hit his head against a brick wall. After this, the wardens beat him to death.

Thein Htoo and the other five strikers were transferred to remote prisons, where they served the rest of their full 10-year sentences.

“We failed,” said Thein Htoo, who was released in 1999 and fled Burma in 2004. “But we didn’t stage that strike believing that we had to win. We just felt we had to fight for our rights. It was a form of protest.”

Hunger strikes are the last resort of political prisoners who want to fight for their rights as prisoners. It is considered extremely risky, and is usually referred to by the initials, HS.

After 1988, when the military staged a coup, crushed the pro-democracy uprising and jailed thousands of dissidents, Insein and other prisons occasionally became hotbeds of HS.

Since then, dozens of hunger strikers have occurred in Burma’s jails, in which about 1,500 political prisoners are still being detained.

Late last month, 15 political prisoners in Insein Prison started refusing to eat. They are making the same demand that Thein Htoo and his six colleagues made: a reduction of their sentences, denied to them despite a recent amnesty that saw thousands of criminal prisoners and around 220 political prisoners released earlier in the month, and despite the fact that they have already nearly completed their original sentences.

Since the strike began on Oct 26, the authorities have used all the usual techniques against the strikers, including cutting off their supply of drinking water, putting them in solitary confinement and denying family members access to them. Like Thein Htoo, these strikers must have been aware of how risky their fight would be.

But sometimes, with careful planning, HS wins.

In 2001, when U Zawana, the monk who had prayed for the Tharrawaddy hunger strikers three years before, was detained in Taungoo Prison, he instructed six other young political prisoners who were planning to stage a hunger strike on how to do it effectively. 

“I think HS can work in some cases as a way to demand prison rights,” said U Zawana, who spent 16 years as a political prisoner in three prisons from 1993 to 2009.   

The monk suggested that the six people divide themselves into three groups. The first two strikers should be healthiest, because they would start the strike and were likely to last the longest. Two days later, the second group would join them, and two days after that, the third group would join.

U Zawana said that this method would prolong the strike in the event that the first two strikers were unable to endure the lack of food and water.

After the strike began, U Zawana and around 60 other political prisoners announced to the authorities that they wouldn’t accept food provided by the prison, but made it clear that they would eat food provided by their families. They did this to show solidarity with the hunger strikers, without actually joining them. In this way, they could put additional pressure on the authorities to peacefully resolve the issue.

After three days, the authorities summoned U Zawana and three other political prisoners. The prison authorities said to U Zawana, “You are a monk, so you can persuade the strikers to eat.” But the monk refused.

After five days, the prison authorities granted the six strikers their demand—the right to walk around freely in their cell-block compound, instead of being locked up all day in their cells. The strike was successful.

“If it’s something the prison authorities can grant, there's a chance of success,” said U Zawana. “But if you demand a change in official policies or raise political issues, you are highly likely to fail.”

U Wisara failed. So did Thein Htoo and his colleagues. But in Burma’s HS history, there was a big victory. 

The Great Coco Island, which served as a penal colony in the 1960s under Ne Win’s authoritarian regime, was the scene of a number of hunger strikes. The island had no other inhabitants and the food and living conditions there were terrible. Finally, in 1971, some political prisoners staged the second-longest hunger strike in Burmese history, lasting more than 50 days. Their demand was to close down the prison island. Eight strikers died. But in the end, the government shut down the island prison and sent all of the prisoners back to Insein Prison. 

Despite this very rare success, political prisoners are wary of resorting to the extremely risky tactic of staging a hunger strike.

Moe Zaw Oo, who spent over eight years in jail during 1990s, said he sees the hunger strike as a method that uses the striker's own body as a weapon.



« previous  1  |  2  |  3  next page »

COMMENTS (2)
 
Please read our policy before you post comments. Click here
Name:
E-mail:   (Your e-mail will not be published.)
Comment:
You have characters left.
Word Verification: captcha Type the characters you see in the picture.
 

Myanmar Patriots Wrote:
11/11/2011
Great tragedy: principles without understanding wider issues of state and society and historical perspectives.

Yet, they must be free! Ignorance is no reason for imprisonment and repression. Fight ignorance with proper education.

Ohn Wrote:
06/11/2011
Men with principles.

Cowards will kill your body but not the spirit.

Everybody salutes you.

more articles in this section