The following Wednesday, Ko Win Swe, Phone Myint Htun, Kyaw Myint Oo (Democratic Party for a New Society), Thet Naing Oo (NLD-Youth) and U Saw Win (NLD-MP) requested to Capt. Thar Oo and Dr. Soe Kyi: “If the prison cannot provide proper medicines or enough needles, we would like to supply them for ourselves. So give us the right to obtain them from our families during prison visitations.” Capt. Thar Oo and Dr. Soe Kyi threatened, “All of you are under the jail manual rules. If you don’t want to feel the sufferings of prison, you should not have come here in the first place. If you complain again, we will suppose you are trying to spark a political movement.”
Until 1994, our families did not have the right to provide medicines which we needed.
During 1993, U Kin Sein was sent at least four times to prison hospital. By the end of 1993, his eyes could see nothing. At the beginning of 1994, we began to suspect that he was showing symptoms of HIV. His weight dropped noticeably, there were many rashes on his body, he was feverish for long periods of time, and he suffered from diarrhea. When he drank water, it came out almost immediately in his feces. Dr. Tun Tun said that none of U Kin Sein's internal organs were functioning properly. We realized then that he had definitely been infected with HIV.
At the end of 1994, we had no choice but to send him to the prison hospital because he no longer knew anything, not even his name. one month later, MIS permitted him to have the right to see some specialists at Rangoon General Hospital. We prisoners all understood that MIS's permission meant that U Kin Sein was close to death. MIS tested him many times to see if he was really unconscious. After accepting that he really was, they approved his release. By the time he was actually released, he was already dead.
Later we were informed that he died of AIDS. one can argue that HIV symptoms never appear in such a short time, that it usually takes between six or twelve years. But in a place like Insein Prison, perhaps this is not necessarily the case.
This article is contributed by former political prisoner Moe Aye.
« previous 1 | 2 |