Buthidaung: Four officials of the Buthidaung prison, including a prison warden and the jailer were relieved of their responsibilities after leakage of information and documents from inside the prison precincts, said a close associate of prison authorities.

“U Tin Tun, warden of the prison, U Win Maung, jailer, prison doctor Htay Win and another official were removed from their posts by higher authorities on May 30,” he said.

A lot of information and photographs were leaked from the Buthidaung prison, 80 miles north of Sittwe, recently. Higher authorities dismissed the four.

“In the last few months, some photographs and information relating to the situation inside the prison were exposed by the media in exile.

The authorities were enraged when they saw them. Later they fired the four officials of the prison,” he said.

In Buthidaung prison, notorious in western Burma, there are 25 political prisoners, including 88 generation student leader Ko Htay Kywe, a prominent monk U Ei Thariya, Ko Moe Nay Soe, Ko Maung Maung Chit, Ko Chit Ko Ko, Ko Than Htay and Ma Ni Ni May Myint.

“I heard that some photographs and information were leaked through political prisoners after prison officials were bribed. Some foreign based Burmese radio services broadcast the situation inside the prison.

After this some political prisoners were sent to solitary confinement for having leaked information,” he said. The prison authorities then imposed various restrictions and most visitors have been prohibited to visit their relatives in prison since the incident.

“I went to the prison last week to give some parcels to my friend and monk in the prison but the authorities refused to give my parcels to my friend. They told me that monks did not have the right to give such parcels to prisoners,” a monk from Buthidaung said.

A relative of a political prisoner in Sittwe also faced a similar problem when he went to the prison.

"I went to the prison to see my friend and took some money and goods but the authorities refused to let me see him. I had to hand over the money and goods to a prison official for passing it on to my friend."

Buthidaung prison is located in a remote area of Burma and the ICRC and other human right organizations have no chance of visiting the prison to find out the state of the political prisoners.

Many political prisoners are now facing myriad problems in the prison and most suffer from lack of medical treatment and adequate food.