Mizzima
The Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM) has called for the political prisoners Wai Yan Htet and Min Thitsar Maung (aka Bala) to receive treatment at hospitals for injuries they sustained just before their arrest.
According to the PPNM 2 April statement, Wai Yan Htet and Min Thitsar Maung were unjustly imprisoned without receiving medical treatment at an outside hospital after only having received emergency treatment at a military hospital following their arrest.
“Currently, Wai Yan Htet cannot move his leg below the knee. The injuries that he received were internal fractures. Both of them are suffering from pain in their thighs. Their waist and thighs are held together with bolts. The military hospital did not do it properly, as it was an emergency at that time. They are suffering from their injuries every day”, said Thaik Tun Oo, a member of the PPNM steering committee.
Thaik Tun Oo claimed that by not allowing the men to receive treatment in hospitals the junta is blatantly disregarding a law allowing prisoners to receive emergency treatment in hospitals outside prisons. As a result, this violation of the prisoners’ rights has been reported to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Wai Yan Htet and Min Thitsar Maung were amongst a group of five young adults who jumped out of a fourth-floor apartment on 44th Street in Botataung Township, Yangon, on 10 August 2021 when junta officials came to the apartment to arrest them for hiding explosive devices.
Two of them, Wai Wai Myint (aka Pan Thee) and Wai Zaw Phyo died on the spot after jumping.
The other three, Ye Min Oo, Wai Yan Htet and Min Thitsar Maung, were badly injured after their jumps but they were arrested on the spot and then received inadequate treatment for their injuries.
They were all sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment, under the Explosives Substances Act, on 27 December 2022.
Ye Min Oo, who is serving his sentence in Tharrawaddy Prison in Bago Region, broke a leg that has healed shorter than his other leg.
Min Thitsar Maung, who is also being held at Tharrawaddy Prison, injured his legs and waist when he landed. His injuries have not healed properly and he is constantly in pain, according to Thaik Tun Oo.
Wai Yan Htet, who is serving his sentence in Yangon’s Insein Prison. He broke both his femurs (thigh bones) and had bolts and steel rods inserted in them to keep them together. He is currently confined to a wheelchair, according to the PPNM’s statement.
