Kaladan Press Network

Dated: 16, July 2002

TWO PRISONERS OF LABOUR CAMP DIED OF HARD WORK

By Our Correspondent

Mrauk-U: July 16: Two prison labourers of the Layant

Taung prison labour camp in Mrauk-U township, Arakan

state, died of exhaustive hard labour on June 1, 2002

while they were collecting stones by diving into the

Lemro river, said a prisoner who was released from the

camp last week.

The two deceased prisoners, namely Maung Tun and Tun

Mya, have long been suffering from fever and other

complications. While passing their days without any

medical treatment, the army engaged them in underwater

stone collection. At one stage the two poor prisoners

could not withstand the exhaustive hard work and had

not appeared from their diving. But their dead bodies

were found later in the river, he further said.

Taking advantage of the situation, the jailer of the

prison camp accused the other inmates of killing Maung

Tun and Tun Mya and extracted double slave labour from

them for the benefit of the jail officers, MI-18, and

District Peace and Development Council known as Dasaka

officials. The stone pieces collected from such unpaid

prison hard labour are sold among the officers and it

has become a lucrative business for them since 1999,

said a source in the prison camp.

 The jailer of the Leyant Taung prison labour camp

first sells these stone pieces to MI 18 at the rate

of Kyats 1200 per hundred cubic feet, which sells them

again to the Dasaka of Akyab at Kyat 5000 per hundred

cubic feet. The prisoners are kept on chains. They

have to sleep in huts with compound surrounded by

three layers of barbed wire. They are shackled while

sleeping and working. Some of them are chained up with

four to five chains. The prison authorities and

military treat them as animals. Normally they work 7

am to 4 pm. Sometimes, they are engaged in extra works

in the personal projects of the authorities like

brickfields, shrimp-culture, etc. for their monetary

benefits, said the source.

It may be mentioned here that the Burmese military

regime (SPDC) have been established prison labour

camps all over Burma, particularly in the ethnic

nationality areas after 1988 coup. Convicts are

regularly used for unpaid labour as porters, on major

infrastructure projects and at rock quarries. They

included both criminal convicts and political

prisoners. Convicts doing forced labour are generally

treated much more brutally than ordinary civilians are

routinely used in very dangerous works, such as

blowing up rock faces or digging at cliff-sites, in

which many of them killed. 

Editor

Kaladan Press