NEWS - Myanmar Camps Kill Thousands

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar Camps Kill Thousands, Released Thais Say

            Reuters
            21-SEP-98

            YANGON, Sept 21 (Reuters)- Thousands of Myanmar prisoners
die
            each year from starvation and sickness or are beaten to
death in
            "slave labour camps," a group of released prisoners said on
Monday. 

            Myanmar's military government freed 101 Thai prisoners on
Monday in
            what it called a goodwill gesture to boost relations with
its eastern
            neighbour. 

            Most of the Thais are fishermen, locked up for more than
three years in
            Yangon's In Sien prison and in Mandalay after their vessels
entered
            Myanmar's territorial waters. 

            The Thai prisoners, speaking on their return to Bangkok,
said they
            were generally treated well but spoke of appalling
conditions faced by
            their Myanmar cellmates, most of whom were convicted of
petty
            crimes such as theft. 

            Local prisoners faced regular beatings, infection from
            HIV-contaminated medical supplies or were sent to labour
camps from
            which many never returned, they said. 

            "Myanmar tries to lessen overcrowding in its jails by
sending prisoners
            to slave camps from which only 50 percent return," one Thai
trader,
            who spent time in both In Sien and Mandalay jails, told
Reuters. 

            The released prisoners said Mandalay jail, which houses more
than
            9,000 inmates, sent prisoners to work in rice fields or on
contruction
            sites where they were forced to break rocks. 

            "My cellmate who returned from six months in a slave camp
told me
            that only 70 of 300 prisoners returned to jail," said a
prisoner who was
            sentenced to 18 years' jail for attempting to smuggle rubies
out of
            Myanmar. 

            "More than 50 percent died from poor nutrition or sickness
while some
            escaped," he added. 

            He said officials and fellow inmates had told him during his
10-month
            stay in Mandalay that at least 50 prisoners died in the jail
each month
            from sickness or beatings. 

            One released trader said more than 530,000 prisoners were
kept in
            Myanmar's relatively few jails. "From Yangon to Mandalay,
Myanmar
            has only 10 jails," he said. 

            The Thais said the worst ordeals were experienced in In Sien
jail in
            Yangon, both by local and foreign inmates. 

            "Five hundred prisoners were sent out to slave camps in May,
but less
            than 100 of them returned. They looked like skeletons, not
like human
            beings," said another ex-prisoner. 

            The Thais said many Myanmar prisoners were prepared to work
in the
            rice fields or on construction sites because this allowed
them to earn
            reductions in their jail terms. 

            "The worst thing is Myanmar jails are flooded with AIDS,"
said one
            Thai. "Because the prisons lack medicine and medical
equipment, the
            prisoners share the same needles." 

            They said deaths from sickness and beatings were rising,
especially
            among inmates with HIV or those who had developed AIDS. 

            "At least two persons die every day in In Sien prison," said
one. In
            Sien houses more than 12,000 inmates, he said. 

            But the ex-prisoners said the Myanmar authorities generally
treated
            foreign prisoners relatively well. 

            "For us, everyone has his own needles and we have our own
medicine
            that is sent to us by relatives or by the public health
ministry," a Thai
            trader said. 

            But even foreign prisoners face a high death rate, they
said. 

            Rut Somnak, a trawler skipper arrested in 1995 along with 60
other
            Thai fishermen, said at least eight of his fellow fishermen
had died in In
            Sien jail during the past three years.