Centre for Applied Human Rights
Min Min
Burma/Myanmar, CAHR, Autumn 2011
My name is Min Min. I come originally from Burma/Myanmar but now I do not know which country I belong to because I escaped illegally to Thailand in 2006. I am a former political prisoner. I spent 5 years, one month and seven days in prison and detention centres because I tried to set up a student union in my college with fellow students.
I have been involved in politics since 1996 when I was 17 years old and a college student. After the 1996 student uprising, I went to Maesod, Thailand, illegally. I secretly contacted a student group, ABFSU-FAC, the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (Foreign Affairs Committee). After contacting the student group, I returned to Burma/Myanmar and organised to set up a Student Union in Bago Degree College when it would open again in 2000. Unfortunately, I was arrested with my friends in 2000 and sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment. First I was put into Insein prison for about a year. After I, together with other student prisoners, went on a hunger strike for prisoners’ rights I was transferred to Tharrawaddy prison far away from home. I was held in Tharrawaddy prison for over 4 years. I was released on 6 July 2005.
After I, together with other student prisoners, went on a hunger strike for prisoners’ rights I was transferred to Tharrawaddy prison far away from home.
After I was released in 2005, I applied to go to college to study but was rejected. I was re-detained two times for 7 days in January 2006. As a result, I decided to move to be safe and fled to Thailand in 2006.
Burmese people are struggling under harsh conditions. Former political prisoners’ conditions are the worst: their movement is restricted and they face living in hardship, offenses to personal dignity, and severe harassment from authorities. After my so-called release from prison, I often felt that I, along with other former political prisoners in my country, was still behind bars. "Freedom" is not easily regained. I have had difficulties in making a living for various reasons. I felt depressed because I could not find a job and because I was not allowed to study again. Moreover, because of torture in prison and interrogation centres, I also suffer from emotional consequences from the continuing harassment after I was released. Because of all this, I, like many other former political prisoners, fled from Burma.
After I fled to Thailand in 2006, I joined AAPP-B, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Burma, which reports on the human rights situation in our country’s prisons to the international community. AAPP-B is standing up not only for the political prisoners who are currently held in Burmese prisons but also for the over 10,000 former political prisoners in Burma. AAPP-B is supporting and providing assistance to political prisoners and their families. My involvement in this organisation is another threat to my safety because I will surely face arrest, torture and imprisonment if I was deported back to Burma/Myanmar. However, I feel I have to do it for my colleagues who are still detained in prison.
During my time at the Centre for Applied Human Rights I have developed together with some of the LLM students a handbook, a "Prisoners' Rights Manual", for political prisoners, prisoners and their families. I hope to be able to use this in my work as a first stage development for future prison reform in Burma.