Dignity Denied in Junta Detainment

Over recent weeks, the Myanmar military junta has arbitrarily arrested multiple pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders in further attempts to suppress the people’s unprecedented and unwavering resistance. At the same time, the junta continues to systematically deprive political prisoners of their basic human rights and dignity, including by violently torturing them and denying them medical treatment—ultimately killing them. It’s high time for the international community to take decisive, coordinated action to hold the junta accountable under international law, end its capacity to commit atrocity crimes, and ensure robust support for current and former political prisoners.

On 7 August 2025, at Tharyarwaddy Prison in Bago Region, the junta released and immediately rearrested Moe San Su Kyi—a 26-year-old leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party who had been arbitrarily detained since 9 May 2021. A senior NLD official close to her family told Myanmar Now, “Just as she stepped out, she was taken away in a police vehicle. They told us the township police needed to ask her something. Then we learned she was being charged again.” Tharyarwaddy Prison—where the junta is detaining Moe San Su Kyi—is notorious for its deplorable conditions, where the junta subjects political prisoners to overcrowding, torture, deliberate provision of harmful food, and denial of medical care.

Last month, on 19 July 2025, two political prisoners died in prison due to deprivation of medical care: Wutt Yee Aung, a 26-year-old activist and executive member of the Dagon University Students’ Union, and Pyae Sone Aung, a 44-year-old NLD member. The junta brutally tortured Wutt Yee Aung after arresting her on 14 September 2021, inflicting severe injuries that led to fainting spells, seizures, cardiac arrest, and ultimately her death. Despite her extreme medical needs, junta personnel repeatedly denied her family’s requests for medical treatment outside the prison.

On 25 July, the junta also rearrested Myo Myo Aye—the leader of the Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar (STUM) and a prominent human rights and labor activist—at her home in Shwe Pyi Thar Township, Yangon Region. Three days later, on 28 July, the junta arrested Myo Myo Aye’s daughter Chue Thwel and three other STUM staff members. The next day, the junta arrested another STUM staff member. Sources indicate that a total of 10 labor activists were arrested that week. The whereabouts and conditions of these human rights defenders remain unknown, and there is extreme concern about Myo Myo Aye’s need for urgent access to specific medication—which the junta has made impossible to deliver to her. 

Meanwhile, on 3 August, the Karenni Political Prisoners Association reported that the junta is depriving the 140 political prisoners in junta-run Loikaw Prison of adequate medical care and food, as well as heavily restricting their bodily movement. 

According to the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM), in 2025, the junta has killed at least 17 political prisoners by depriving them of proper medical care. Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Assistance Association for­ Political Prisoners (AAPP), told Myanmar Now, “They are killing them, slowly and intentionally,” noting that the junta’s “denial of medical treatment is deliberate.”

Since the coup attempt, the junta has arbitrarily arrested at least 29,538 people and is still detaining more than 22,200 thereof, according to AAPP. In that time, the junta has killed at least 2,152 people during detainment, murdering at least 134 of those political prisoners during violent interrogations. The Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar’s latest annual report, released on 12 August 2025, “details the documented torture in Myanmar’s detention facilities which includes beatings, electric shocks, strangulations, gang rape, burning of sexual body parts and other forms of sexual violence”—committed by junta personnel.

Such lethal conditions for political prisoners are part and parcel of the military’s terror campaign against the people—emboldened by decades of impunity, but also marked by decades of defiant, steadfast resistance by generations of Myanmar’s people. In separate statements on the 37th anniversary of the 8888 Uprising, 8 August 2025, both AAPP and PPNM honored the thousands of individuals, including political prisoners, who have sacrificed their lives for the Myanmar people’s ongoing fight to end military tyranny and build federal democracy. 

The international community must do more to support the Myanmar people’s democratic revolution and cut the junta’s capacity to commit atrocity crimes against the people, including its systematic torture of political prisoners. Urgent action is needed to halt the junta’s terror campaign and move towards the immediate, unconditional release of all political prisoners. These actions must include targeted, coordinated sanctions on the junta and its cronies, as well as an immediate end to all engagement with the junta, including diplomatic, political, military, and financial engagement. Ensuring robust support for political prisoners—and enabling former political prisoners to rebuild their lives with dignity—must also be a priority for the international community. 

In tandem, the junta must be held accountable for its atrocity crimes through all available avenues. The criminal entity committing mass atrocity crimes against the Myanmar people is the same entity systematically detaining, torturing, and killing political prisoners: the military junta.

The path to a new, peaceful Myanmar free from the military’s cycles of violence begins with dismantling this criminal institution and holding the perpetrators accountable under international law—an imperative for justice for victims and survivors. The international community must increase its support for the Myanmar people’s ongoing efforts to seek justice and hold the military to account for its war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

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[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.

Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”