Junta compiling personal information of prisoners

By Admin 28 Oct 2024

DMG Newsroom
28 October 2024, Sittwe

Myanmar's military regime has been collecting the personal information of individual prisoners in penitentiaries across the country, according to the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM), raising concerns about its motives.

The junta has been compiling data since September, mainly focusing on the names of the fathers of prisoners, their ages, citizenship ID card numbers, addresses and marital status.

"The personal details of inmates were collected through prison staff, and questions differ from one prison to another," reads a PPNM statement.

The network suggests that the regime may either conscript prisoners or abuse their information to commit electoral fraud in its proposed 2025 election. The regime has been conducting a "national" population census - much of the country will not be counted due to the junta's lack of control over large swaths of Myanmar - to compile voter lists for an election that it has proposed to take place next year.

Opponents have criticised the poll as a sham exercise intended to retain the military's grip on power.

Family members of political prisoners are concerned about the junta's data collection. "We are concerned that they will be conscripted," said a family member of an Arakan State resident jailed on political charges.

Some prisons have not yet started collecting personal information about prisoners, but the PPNM said it learnt that the regime plans to collect data at all the prisons under its control.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), 27,584 people have been detained since the coup, of whom 21,041 remain under detention, and 9,480 have been given jail sentences.