RFA
Several dissidents who spoke critically of the junta takeover of Myanmar’s democratically elected government have died in detention and were given crude autopsies before their bodies were returned to their families, prompting observers to call for a probe into the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
Zaw Htun, also known as the Poet Khet Thi, was arrested by junta security forces in Sagaing region’s Shwebo township and sent for interrogation on May 9, after months of taking part in nationwide protests against the military’s Feb. 1 coup and calling for resistance to the regime through his poetry.
Less than 24 hours later, his family was informed of his death and told to collect his body at a hospital in the region’s largest city Monywa. His wife said that authorities informed her Zaw Htun had died from a health condition, but she found his body covered in bruises and missing its internal organs, leading her to believe he had been killed in custody.
An official from deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) died in custody after he was arrested early on Tuesday, the second party figure to die in detention in two days, as security forces broke up street protests against the military.