The Voices of Daw Hnin Pan Ein and U Ne Oo
Daw Hnin Pan Ein – also known as ‘Ma Thandar’ is a writer and radio-reporter from Rangoon. Her husband U Ne Oo had to flee the country due to his political activities (NLD) and she followed him in November 2008. They live with their son in NuPho refugee camp, along the Thai-Burma border.
Daw Hnin Pan Ein is an active supporter of political prisoners and their families and helped many people over the years.This is her story:
“When I was six months old, my father was sent to a prison on ‘Ko Ko John’, the Coco Islands in the Andaman Sea off the Burmese coast. He was active in peace groups. In 1963 Ne Win had called for peace. Afterwards, he arrested all people calling for peace. My father was one of them. He was sent to Insein prison for three years. He also spent four years on the prison island. Once, he took part in a hungerstrike. Eight people died because of it. After this hunger strike, the authorities closed this prison island.
My father’s human rights were abused: he was allowed to reunite with his family but it was not a good place for the family to live. So he started a hungerstrike.
When I was 7 years old, my father was released from prison. I did not recognise him. I could not remember him. He was wearing a moustache and a beard. I could not remember him..
Another author in Burma, who has similar experiences, told me exactly the same. I was hiding, when my father came. I did not want to meet him. Did not know who he was. People told me: ‘This is your father.’ It did not mean much to me. Under Ne Win’s regime many families were taken apart like this. Many more people have similar experiences.
When I was 14 years old, my father was arrested again. He spent three years in a detention centre – not a prison. He did not meet the family during this time. When he was released in 1993, he went into hiding. I have not seen him again until this day.
I was raised by my mother. I am the oldest child; I have four brohers and sisters. I looked after them, together with my mother. I had to stop my education to care for the family. ”
Daw Hnin Pan Ein became politically active in 1988 as a student. She became a member of the NLD. She married U Ne Oo in 1992.
“My husband was arrested in 1998 and was sentenced to prison for 14 years. It was his first time in prison and he was sent to a far away prison: Kalay Prison in Sagaing Division (almost 700 miles from Rangoon).
Together with some others, they were the first prisoners in this new prison. I did not have enough money to visit him. I was forced to sell my house and my gold so I could go and see my husband. It took me four nights and five days travel to get there. And once inside the prison, we were only allowed 15 minutes together. A return trip of 12 days for 15 minutes with my husband…
Things like this are some of the worst human rights abuses in the world.
I had to leave my 4 year old child behind every time I could visit my husband. I had to travel by train, bus, boat. It was a very long trip every time. I tried to visit him once a month. I had to because the prison food was so bad, animals wouldn’t even eat it, so I had to take food for my husband. Every time we met and spoke, there were eight policemen standing behind us: four behind him and four behind me. We were only allowed to speak about our families, no other matters were allowed to be discussed. We could not speak about politics. Not about the NLD. And Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s name was not allowed to be mentioned.
My husband was imprisoned for his political activities. In 1998 during the independence anniversary he participated in the events and interviewed people about student’s history. He released articles and statements about this. He was sentenced, like many others, under Act 5 (J). To eight years in prison. He spent his prison time in Insein, Mandalay, Monywa and Kalay Prisons.”
Afraid her child would become estranged from his father, like during her own childhood, Daw Hnin Pan Ein sometimes took her son to meet his father in prison.
“I wanted them to kiss each other, but this was difficult because of the bars between them. Once, my child tried to put his head through the bars to give his father a kiss, but his head got stuck. We could not get him out and the police came to cut the bars with a saw. I did not want this: if something would go wrong, we would have big problems. The prison is so remote that in case of an emergency it will take a long time to get to a hospital or to get medical help. I did not want anything like this to happen to my son. We got him out in the end..
It was also because of Ludu Daw Ama, another well-known author who encouraged me to take my child to prison, that I took him to meet his father. I did not want him to forget who his father was.”
Daw Hnin Pan Ein always suffered when she met her husband.
“It was very difficult to see my husband in those circumstances. And also the other political prisoners. Before 2002, there was no medical treatment in prison. If a prisoner was ill, it took a long process of reporting to the authorities in Rangoon. Because of this, many political prisoners died in prison. Simply because they did not get the medical aid they needed. The military junta is cheating on the international community, by saying there are no political prisoners in Burma. Well, I saw them myself. Many of them!
It is not only the political prisoners they are torturing, but also their families. Political prisoners are used by the junta to set an example to the people: this is what happens to you when you get involved in politics. Some prisoners in remote prisons like in Putao and Khamti prisons, hardly get any family visits. Even if their families have money, it is extremely difficult to reach these places. These places are really remote: they are very hard to reach by normal transport modes: for example, if you want to fly to Putao, you can only do so twice every month..
It was always very difficult to meet my husband. He was far away, the trip took a long time and I did not have the money to visit him often. I discussed these difficulties with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. We decided I would set up a business and sell ‘nga pi’ (fishpaste) to earn an income to be able to meet him.
This way, I could also meet other political prisoners and bring much needed food and other things. The MI (Military Intelligence) were suspicious. They came and interrogated me. Captain Saw Myint threatened me by putting his gun on my table and asked: ‘Who supports you? Is it Daw Aung San Suu Kyi? How is it possible that you can come here to this prison?’
I answered: “You imprisoned my husband. Now you want to torture me mentally, too? You cannot do that.’
They requested a list of all the customers I sold fishpaste to. I refused to do this. They eventually left me alone again.”
Like many other political prisoners, Daw Hnin Pan Ein’s husband U Ne Oo, was asked to sign the so-called 401 Agreement before his release. This agreement is often offered to political prisoners and offers them a possibility of an earlier release, should they sign and promise not to engage in further political activities. If they do, they will be sentenced again and will have to serve their new sentence plus the remaining years of the earlier release in prison.
“My husband refused to sign the 401 Agreement. ‘I am a politician’, he said. ‘It’s my job to be politically active.’ He was immediately taken back to prison and was not released.
I am very proud of him. He is helping people who are in trouble. I am also trying to do my bit. The past ten years, together with other political prisoners, I have supported their families with food, transportion etc.
My husband was released in 2005. He was released from Kalay Prison and continued his activities for the NLD. He was involved in the 2007 Saffron Revolution and provided help together with Zarganar and others to the victims of the 2008 cyclone Nargis. The husband of my husband’s niece got arrested shorlty after that and they were after my husband, too. He had to go into hiding. It was not enough: he was forced to flee the country. Because of continuous harassment by the authorities, my son and I followed him to Thailand in 2008.
At the time I was assisting U Aung Than’s daughter. U Aung Than is quite well-known, as the lonely demonstrator in the documentary Burma VJ. He was imprisoned in Kalay Prison and I helped his daughter to visit him. The military junta had organised a fake demonstration: so-called 88 Generation students – backed up by the regime – staged a demonstration in front of the US Embassy, against US santions. Nothing happened and the demonstrators were not arrested by the regime. U Aung Than wanted to see if the junta were honest and staged a similar demonstration in the same place. But with a different demand: release all political prisoners. He was arrested. And sentenced to 65 years in prison. ”
Daw Hnin Pan Ein helped political prisoners’ families and other victims for years.
“I have never heard of people who help other people get arrested in other countries…
Like Zarganar, who helped victims of cyclone Nargis in 2008. He recovered dead bodies, handed out drinking water.. Also Aung Kyo San and Dr Ne Win and his daughter. They did nothing against the military government. They just helped the people after Nargis…”
Many human rights abuses are committed by the Burmese junta and prisoners are often mistreated.
“Ma Sandar is a female political prisoner who is imprisoned in Insein. She was ill and suffered a heart attack. The toilet pipe was broken and she asked the prison auhorities to come and fix it or to transfer her. But they did not do anything. They told her, it was her own fault she got arrested and was in prison, they would not do anything, even if she died. They then sent 20 men to beat her up.
Some time later, her roof leaked and rain came in her cell. Again, she asked the prison authorities to fix it and again they refused. To punish her, they attacked her with a spear and stabbed her. She told me this story when I visited her. Don’t tell the media, they were told. But she said: ‘We suffer, we have to speak out.’ And I told the media about this.
Many families of political prisoners have no courage to speak to the media. They are afraid. Zarganar’s family spoke with the media and are not allowed to visit him now.”
Daw Hnin Pan Ein then explains about different types of prisons in Burma:
“There are three kinds of prisons in Burma:
A – those for long term prisoners (like death sentence)
B – those for sentences longer than 10 years
C – those for sentences under 10 years
The type A prisons desperately need hospitals and medical treatment on site. Right now, they only built these places as ‘places to kill’.
Prison cells measure 8 square feet (approx. 2 square metres). This is one cell. In this cell sometimes up to four people are kept. They all have to eat, sleep and use the toilet in this small room.
When there are four prisoners in such a cell, one may be using the toilet while the others are eating right next to him. When they need injections, only one needle is used for all prisoners. As a consequence there is a high rise in HIV/Aids cases in prisons.
In new prisons, hospitals are being built. Mostly only for ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) inspections: to show off. There are no doctors and the hospitals are not functioning. When the ICRC come to visit, they will use prisoners who are imprisoned on drug charges to pose as doctors. Because they know how to handle syringes…”
Daw Hnin Pan Ein uses the following example to illustrate a political prisoner’s life is not worth much in Burmese prisons:
“All prisons have so-called development programmes, where prisoners keep animals such as cows, goats and pigs. Whenever one of these animals dies, a lot of paperwork and forms have to be filled out. What exactly happened, how did the animal die, etc.
In contrast, whenever a political prisoner dies, only one sheet of paper has to be filled out..”
She continues her personal story:
“After 2002, the ICRC supported us with travel expenses. But it was still not easy to meet other political prisoners and to help them. The NLD also supported. They gave 1500-2000 Kyat before. Now they give 5000 Kyat.
Whenever I met my husband, my child was with my mother. Ordinary people helped me by buying my fishpaste. I named my fishpaste ‘Democratic Fishpaste’!
I was the first one to visit a political prisoner in Kalay Prison. Dr Thein Win from the NLD offered his house to stay in when I visited my husband. This house is still offered to families who visit their relatives in remote Kalay prison: now, U Gambira’s mother stays there whenever she visits her son.
Because of the dangers involved when visiting my husband, I became an author. The trips to the prison were very hazardous: parts had to be done by speedboat and sometimes these went too fast and capsized. People died during accidents like these. We also had to travel through the jungle. So I decided to write. When I wrote about my husband, I could not mention where he was kept, this was not allowed.
I always carried a fake smile: behind my smile, I cried a lot.
My husband once said: ‘Don’t come and visit me with a fake smile.’
‘I’m fine’, I always said. But I was suffering a lot and had many debts.
The way back home from the prison was also dangerous and we both worried about each other a lot.”
What has been your motivation to go on all these years?
U Ne Oo replies:
“My faith in the truth. I believe in justice. Democracy is necessary for our country.”
Daw Hnin Pan Ein adds:
“When my father was in prison, I suffered. Then my husband was imprisoned too. I do not want the younger generation to experience the same thing. I have to act and stand up to prevent this.
I do not come from a rich family. When my father got arrested, the military said: ‘Cooperate with us, you have money.’ My father gave my younger brother the name of a Mon leader. He refused to cooperate with the regime. If we had worked with them, we could have been rich and could have led a good life.
We have suffered from this system. Now and in the past. We do not want the next generations to suffer like this. We want democracy.”
How is change possible in Burma?
“Only when we all speak in one voice, all the ethnic groups, can we bring about change.
If we really work and continue the Shwegondaing Declaration with one united voice, there will be change in Burma. At the moment, there are too many different organisations and parties with too many different voices. We need one party. We need to be united.”
What can the international community do to help?
“The junta is now transferring into a civilian government. A civilian government, but with a military spirit. As long as this military spirit exists, we have to fight them.
The international community sent troops to intervene in the Darfur region in Sudan. We have enough documents and proof of human rights abuses in Burma. Why don’t they come to Burma?”
What can normal people in the West do?
“Anybody can support us: when people are demonstrating, there will always be somebody who hands them water or something. That is also support.
Other people are afraid to do this and wave from their houses out of encouragement. That is also support.
Other people are afraid to do this and pray for the demontrators inside their homes. That is also support.
Everybody can always do something.”
Do Daw Hnin Pan Ein and U Ne Oo have a message they want to convey to people outside Burma?
U Ne Oo:
“People in the West are lucky because your ancestors fought for your freedom. You are free now because of that. Like in France, during the time of Marie Antoinette. The people were starving and were asking for bread to eat. They were told: ‘If you don’t have bread, then why don’t you eat cake.’ The rich people did not even have a word for starving, because they did not know what this was.. I would like to use a quote from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi:
‘Please, use your liberty to promote ours..’
Daw Hnin Pan Ein:
We are afraid in Burma, for persecution. But we have our dignity. Now that we live as refugees here in the refugee camp, we lost this dignity..”
U Ne Oo:
“We don’t own our own futures. We are stateless now.Thailand is not our country. We are unregistered. Illegal. We are not even official refugees yet.
I would like to go to a third country. For my son’s education.”
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