Some observers said the government might be planning to use the prisoners as porters in its offensive against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State.

Prison authorities selected the prisoners during a line-up on Thursday morning. Most of those selected were long-term prisoners. They were taken away by two trucks and guarded by armed police guards.

‘The trucks were heading east of Insein Township. There were no prison staff on the trucks, and the trucks were not prison vehicles’, said a source.

An analyst who is also an opposition political activist said, ‘According to my experience, if the authorities want them to go to work camps outside the prison, they take their bags and food. But, if they are to be used as porters, they don’t take anything. They go empty-handed’.

Normally, when prisoners are sent to work camps, prison authorities use vehicles owned by the Directorate of Prison Administration.

A person who recently visited a political prisoner in Myitkyina Prison in Kachin State said that on June 9, an estimated 100 prisoners were taken from the prison. A former official in the New Democratic Army-Kachin who lives in Myitkyina said that the Burmese government is using prisoners in its offensive against the KIA.