BANGKOK (AP) — An independent online news agency in Myanmar said Friday that one of its journalists arrested two years ago has been subjected to daily physical and mental abuse after exposing human rights violations in the country’s main prison where he’s being held.
The actions taken against photojournalist Sai Zaw Thaike were also to punish him for leaking information from the prison to media outlets, and because the ruling military government holds a grudge against him for his reporting about them before his arrest, said his employer, Swe Win, editor-in-chief of Myanmar Now.
The military government has cracked down heavily on media freedom since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. A report released Wednesday by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, or CPJ, said that Myanmar ranked as the world’s third-worst jailer of journalists after China and Israel.
Sai Zaw Thaike was mistreated for allegedly exposing human rights abuses by prison staff of fellow political prisoners during an inspection visit to Insein prison in Yangon by officials from the official Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, Swe Win told The Associated Press, elaborating on a report by Myanmar Now.
A committee of the nonpartisan Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions last year recommended suspending the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission from its membership.
It sustained complaints alleging a lack of independence, inability to effectively address human rights, the lack of cooperation with civil society and with the international human rights system, and the selection and appointment of its commissioners after the military takeover. The accreditation committee said that information provided by the Myanmar agency didn’t change its findings.
U.N. and other experts have said Myanmar’s judiciary likewise is under the influence of the ruling military.
Sai Zaw Thaike, 41, was arrested in May 2023, in the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe while reporting the damage caused by Cyclone Mocha, the country’s most destructive storm in at least a decade.
He was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a military tribunal after being convicted of charges under the Telecommunications Law, the Natural Disaster Management Law and statutes covering sedition and incitement for allegedly causing fear and spreading false news.
Swe Win said that Sai Zaw Thaike was physically beaten, tortured and harassed, including by being forced to carry pots of human feces, for at least two weeks after a visit by officials from the Myanmar’s National Human Rights Commission earlier this year.
“Myanmar’s junta must identify and hold to account those responsible for assaulting journalist Sai Zaw Thaike,” Shawn Crispin, senior Southeast Asia representative of the CPJ, said in a statement on Wednesday. “This type of abuse is cruel and grotesque. Myanmar’s military government must stop jailing and abusing journalists now.”
The military government hasn’t responded to the allegations.
At least 15 media outlets, including Myanmar Now, have had their media licenses revoked, and at least 172 journalists were arrested, up to 50 of whom remain detained, according to the local monitoring group Detained Journalists Information. Most of those still behind bars have been convicted under broadly defined security laws.
The AP couldn’t verify details on the allegations of human rights abuses in Insein prison. The prison has been notorious for decades for holding political prisoners under various military governments.
According to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which monitors deaths and arrests, security forces have arrested 28,693 people since the army takeover, with 21,937 remaining in custody.
Myanmar Now reported that two other political prisoners had also suffered mental and physical damage after being tortured following visits by the human rights commissioners, including Thet Hnin Aung, a secretary-general of the Myanmar Industries Craft and Service Trade Union Federation, who was arrested in 2021 and again on his release in 2023 on political charges.
