Analysis of the images taken before the February 2021 military coup – which ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi – through to January 2024, indicate that 27 of 59 prisons identified in the south-east Asian country showed signs of large-scale expansion or the construction of new wings or buildings.
Officially undeclared by the ruling military, the extensive prison building programme has prompted fresh disquiet that Myanmar’s jail network is an increasingly central part of the ongoing crackdown against the nation’s pro-democracy movement.
Published to mark the third anniversary of the 1 February military coup, the analysis, carried out by Myanmar Witness, which collates and verifies evidence of human rights abuse, also detected that 33 new structures likely to house inmates have since been erected outside the perimeter of 25 prisons.
“Due to the security surrounding these additions, and factors such as location and their high-security structure, we believe they are new detention facilities connected to the official prisons,” said Matt Lawrence, director of Myanmar Witness, which is run by the London-based Centre for Information Resilience, a research body partly funded by the British government.
The most high-profile is Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader who was arrested in a pre-dawn raid at the start of the coup, prompting fears she might be taken to Insein prison in Yangon City where she was held in 2003 and 2009.
Accused of committing “terror acts” in a closed-door trial that human rights groups labelled unjust, the analysis appears to pinpoint the location of the gallows used during the infamous executions.
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Analysis of the images taken before the February 2021 military coup – which ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi – through to January 2024, indicate that 27 of 59 prisons identified in the south-east Asian country showed signs of large-scale expansion or the construction of new wings or buildings.
Officially undeclared by the ruling military, the extensive prison building programme has prompted fresh disquiet that Myanmar’s jail network is an increasingly central part of the ongoing crackdown against the nation’s pro-democracy movement.
Published to mark the third anniversary of the 1 February military coup, the analysis, carried out by Myanmar Witness, which collates and verifies evidence of human rights abuse, also detected that 33 new structures likely to house inmates have since been erected outside the perimeter of 25 prisons.
“Due to the security surrounding these additions, and factors such as location and their high-security structure, we believe they are new detention facilities connected to the official prisons,” said Matt Lawrence, director of Myanmar Witness, which is run by the London-based Centre for Information Resilience, a research body partly funded by the British government.
The most high-profile is Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader who was arrested in a pre-dawn raid at the start of the coup, prompting fears she might be taken to Insein prison in Yangon City where she was held in 2003 and 2009.
Accused of committing “terror acts” in a closed-door trial that human rights groups labelled unjust, the analysis appears to pinpoint the location of the gallows used during the infamous executions.
The original article contains 798 words, the summary contains 263 words. Saved 67%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!