Former political prisoners struggle to adjust to life o­n the outside

Disbelief is the reaction Zaw Win gets when he says: “The pressures of life outside jail are greater than those within.” The 36-year-old former student activist was freed in 1999 after serving more than eight years as a “guest” of the military junta, but life in the real world has proved as difficult—though in other ways—as his existence behind bars.

“Prison is awful,” he concedes. “But the o­nly problems we had to deal with there were basically the authority and the lack of freedom.”

Disappointment hit the former political prisoner from the day of his release from Thayet prison, Magwe Division. His uncle greeted him with the words: “You spat from above and it just fell o­n your face. Stop the nonsense, stop what you’ve been doing.”

The words were not o­nly a “very disturbing greeting,” said Zaw Win, “but a big insult to my political beliefs.” His anger was tempered by the recognition that his family and friends didn’t want him to end up in jail again because of his political views.

Pressure to keep silent and out of further trouble was o­nly the start, however. The problems began to pile up—at home, in his search for employment, in his efforts to readapt to society and in his dealings with the authorities.

Zaw Win’s experience isn’t unique. Most of the thousands of political activists imprisoned after the 1988 uprising, initiated by students, have experienced difficulties readjusting to life outside prison, according to the Thailand-based advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

The AAPP’s joint secretary, Bo Kyi, can vouch personally for the organization’s conclusion. He is a former political prisoner and knows the problems of readjustment first-hand. “Every part of our body has to try to adapt again to the outside environment after our release,” he says.

Such subtle factors as changes of color and sound hit the released prisoner, he says. White and khaki are the colors of prison life. Freed prisoners are often unprepared for the sudden burst of color that greets them in the outside world.