Facing months-long trial, Arakanese student activists struggle to stomach prison food

By DMG 19 Jun 2021

DMG Newsroom
19 June 2021, Sittwe 

Four Arakanese students behind bars for months while on trial for their anti-war activism are struggling to eat what they say are substandard meals being provided to them at Sittwe Prison. 

Ko Kyaw Naing Htay, Ko Oo Than Naing and Ko Myat Soe Win from the Arakan Students’ Union, and Ko Kaung Tun from the Arakan Students’ Union (Universities – Yangon), have been charged under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code and Section 29 of Natural Disaster Management Law over an anti-war protest in October. The four students have been on trial for more than seven months. 

The prison food is unpalatable, but the Arakan Students’ Union has faced financial difficulty providing alternative sustenance for them, said communications officer Ko Kyaw Nyein Tun. 

“We have difficulty in providing food for them every week as they have to spend at least K20,000 or K30,000 for a week,” said Ko Kyaw Nyein Tun. 

The student union said it is currently spending money collected from other students to go toward supplying food for their peers in custody. 

Ko Toe Toe Aung, politburo leader for the Arakan Students’ Union, has urged people to help the detained students in any way that they can. 

“They have been sent to prison as they worked for the people. I want people not to ignore them. If they are ignored, other [similarly activism-minded] youths will think that no one would help if they were to be detained,” said Ko Toe Toe Aung. 

After they held a demonstration on October 19, 2020, opposing the war occurring at the time in Arakan State, a case was brought against the four students under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code, an incitement provision. They were also charged under Section 29 of the Natural Disaster Management Law at their first court hearing, held in March 2021. 

Ko Kyaw Naing Htay and Ko Oo Than Naing had also faced a lawsuit under Section 19 of the Peaceful Assembly and Procession Law for staging an unauthorised protest against human rights violations outside the Arakan State government offices in Sittwe in September of last year. The Sittwe Township Court fined them for the charges under Section 19 on May 6. 

Some students from the All Burma Federation of Student Unions were sentenced to prison after being charged last year under Section 505(b) for their public opposition to the war and human rights abuses in Arakan State.