Myanmar's prisons running out of medicines
Human rights activists and the families of political prisoners have made the allegations. Myanmar's military junta has not allowed the Red Cross to visit the country's prisons for four months.
Geneva (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Political prisoners in Myanmar face deteriorating health problems as the country's prisons have been inaccessible to the International Committee of the Red Cross for nearly four months.
The Geneva-based relief agency has been unable to supply medicines for political prisoners since it prison visits were halted late last year, according to Fiona Terry, spokesperson for the ICRC.
Friends and family of political prisoners report that medicines for various diseases, including malaria, heart problems and diabetes, are running out in Burma's prisons. Even drugs for common ailments such as skin diseases are out of stock.
"Drugs for malaria are unavailable even in remote prisons like Khamti and Myitkyina in Kachin State, where the disease is rampant," said Khun Sai, a former political prisoner, who recently fled to Thailand. "Most families have to pay medical expenses for their relatives by themselves," added Khun Sai, who contracted tuberculosis during his detention in Shwebo prison from 1998 to 2004.
ICRC had previously supplied medicines for prisons and labor camps in Burma until the agency faced a standoff with the junta-affiliated Union Solidarity Development Association, which insisted on accompanying the organization on their visits. The ICRC rejected the demand because it violated the agency's protocols, which require their visits to be entirely independent and unsupervised.
State-run The New Light of Myanmar reported today that political prisoner Myint Than died of epilepsy "despite intensive care of physicians" in Thandwe prison, Arakan State.
"It has been a common occurrence that proper treatment is never received in time," said a former political prisoner in Rangoon. "But when ICRC was able to visit prisons, they can push the prison officials to refer patients to hospitals."
Since 1962 Myanmar has been governed by a military junta. Human rights groups have put the number of political prisoners at around 1,100.
According to the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), 118 political prisoners have so far died in Myanmar prisons and detention camps.
From 1999 till last year, the ICRC has made 453 visits to political prisoners, including a 2003 meeting with opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.
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07/02/2019 17:28
28/12/2006
