Kaladan.com

Khonumthung News, May 17 - Prisoners in the ‘Yazakyo’ concentration camp near Kalay town in Sagaing division, northwestern Burma are being treated inhumanly by camp authorities.

“They treat us like animals and force us into hard labour the whole day. It was like hell,” Ko Soe (name changed) who recently escaped from the concentration camp called Yazakyo said.

Ko Soe along with three prisoners managed to escape from Yazakyo camp located 40 miles from Kalay while they were in a work site baking bricks near the camp on April 9.

Though Ko Soe arrived safely on the Indo–Burma border the where abouts of the three other prisoners are not known.

Ko Soe (35) detailed how the authorities in the camp forced prisoners in labour work sites, “We were forced to work from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. everyday day. We ploughed the field in place of cows, cultivated and reaped the paddy, worked in quarries and baked bricks”.

Most prisoners suffered from malnutrition because of the hard labour and inadequate food provided in the camp.

“Only a small bowl of meal was provided to a prisoner. When we asked for more food, we got swipes from the cane,” Ko Soe said.

On a daily basis the prisoners suffered from malaria as use of mosquito nets are prohibited inside the camp. Diarrhea also frequently breaks out and kills prisoners in the concentration camp.

“Most prisoners die of malaria and diarrhea in Kalay hospital,” Ko Soe added.

Ko Soe was sentenced to 28 years in prison for drug trafficking and sent to ‘Inn Taing Lay’ jail in Kalaytownship. After spending nine years in Inn Taing Lay jail, he was shifted to the Yazakyo concentration camp.

At present, there are around 300 prisoners in the ‘Yazakyo’ concentration camp and most of them are jailed in drug trafficking cases.

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