The BBC speaks to prisoners, including an artist whose smuggled sketches record horror inside Myanmar's Insein jail.
South East Asia correspondent
Both young men had disappeared into Myanmar's gulag, a network of prisons and interrogation centres used for decades to detain and torture dissidents. "I was hoping to rely on him when he graduated from university," says Si Thu Aung's mother. "My neighbour tried to comfort me, and I realised that there was now no-one else to help my family, since my husband is ill and bed-ridden. So, I told myself I still have to look after my younger son and husband, and support my son in prison."
"They took him to a morgue and showed him all the decomposing bodies there, telling him 'your life is now worthless. We can kill you for less than the cost of a bag of charcoal'. He had a gunshot wound in his leg because he had been shot when he was arrested. They had rolled iron rods on his shins, he had a large swelling on the back of his head, a dislocated arm and a dislodged disc in his spine. His memory was no longer good - even now he still cannot remember people's names.
"Our cell had 100 people in it, in a space only 5x6m . We all have to sleep on our sides and face the same way. Those who can afford to pay 100,000 to 150,000 kyats a month can get a better spot to sleep." He says he saved his money to pay the guards for better treatment for his son. "They kicked my head and told me to try running, so they could shoot me," he said. "'We are no longer under the rule of high-heels' [ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi], they shouted, 'this is now the rule of military boots'. I thought it would be my last moment."
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