The junta has prohibited the delivery of packages and other mail to inmates in its prisons nationwide after eight people were killed in explosions and a subsequent shooting at Yangon’s Insein Prison on Wednesday.
Myanmar Now spoke with individuals whose friends or relatives are incarcerated in eight prisons in Ayeyarwady, Bago, Magway, Mandalay, and Sagaing regions, as well as Mon State, all of whom confirmed that as of Wednesday evening, they were no longer allowed to send supplies inside the sites.
“[Prison personnel] said it had been suspended until further notice but that they didn’t know the exact reason why—they just said that the superintendent told them to say so,” said a local man who had visited Myingyan Prison in Mandalay on Wednesday.
He had been regularly sending letters and care packages to two friends detained by the military on incitement charges.
A family member of a political prisoner facing terrorism charges in Pathein, Ayeyarwady Region, said that junta troops in two military trucks had arrived at the site on Wednesday and put up a notice announcing that prison visitation and the delivery of mail and supplies to the facility had been halted as of 10am.
He noted that he had previously been allowed to bring packages to the individual on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
“This is now a situation where prisoners can’t contact the people outside even if they are being oppressed inside, so we’re worried about something happening to them without us knowing,” said a woman whose relative, a student union leader, remains imprisoned on five politically motivated charges.
Family members noted that lengthy security searches made it difficult to send packages—which typically contained food, due to the insufficient diet provided by the prison—even prior to Wednesday’s restrictions, which prohibit everything but cash.
Shops within the prisons typically sell food and commodities to inmates at inflated prices.
“They will have no choice but to buy food from the prison staff. The prices are always twice as high as the price outside the prison, though,” said a local man who had been regularly sending parcels to Myingyan Prison.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, in-person family visits with prisoners across the country were suspended. The ban remains in place at the time of reporting, widely seen as a measure imposed by the military to cut off communications between Myanmar’s thousands of political prisoners and the outside world. Those detained on politically motivated charges have only been able to communicate with relatives through the lawyers representing them.
Myanmar’s prisons are notorious sites where a range of human rights abuses are reported, including abuse by staff, the denial of healthcare, overcrowding, and insufficient and unclean food and water provisions.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has requested permission to visit prisons to observe conditions, but the junta rejected the request, according to a statement released by the organisation in June.
Three prison administration staff and five civilians were killed in the attack at Insein Prison on Wednesday morning, which started with the explosion of two parcel bombs near the facility’s entrance and was followed by junta personnel opening fire on the area from a watchtower. At least 13 people were also injured.
Among the civilians killed or wounded were parents of political prisoners who were delivering parcels at the time of the attack.
Myanmar has more than 90 prisons and jails nationwide, and continues to detain a total of 12,700 people on politically motivated charges, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
