Jan 31 (Reuters) – Shwe Theingi was instantly drawn to Wutt Yee Aung when they met at the start of their second year at Myanmar’s Dagon University in 2019.
The 19-year-old zoology major stood out with her boyish clothes, short hair and friendly but bright personality, Shwe Theingi said. The two young women, who were active in the student union, quickly became friends.
Around the same time and in the same city, Khant Linn Naing was working in a printing house. He was also pursuing a degree in history at a different university and involved with a student union.
The three students were part of the first generation in decades in quasi-democratic Myanmar, enjoying new freedoms in the commercial capital of Yangon before the February 1, 2021, military coup.
And the three were caught in a brutal repression against the tens of thousands of young people who took to the streets in support of democracy five years ago.
Many of those protesters took up arms against the junta. Others escaped or were kept in prison, where some of them died.
At least 74 political prisoners between the ages of 18 and 35 have died in detention since the coup, according to previously unreported data from the Political Prisoners Assistance Association, whose information on Myanmar is often cited by United Nations agencies.
The amount was corroborated with the Myanmar Political Prisoners Network (PPNM), which monitors the country’s prison system. A total of 273 people accused of public incitement and insurrection after the coup died while in prison, according to PPNM.
Reuters interviewed three associates and relatives of detained students and the two groups of prison monitors, and reviewed letters sent by inmates and correctional authorities. Together, they provide the most complete account to date of the conditions experienced by Wutt Yee Aung and Khant Linn Naing and the circumstances of their deaths.
The news agency could not independently verify all the accounts, but it reflects allegations made by UN investigators last year of “systematic torture, killings and other serious abuses during interrogations and in detention facilities operated by Myanmar’s security forces.”
The junta’s information ministry did not return multiple requests for comment on the allegations of ill-treatment.
The military government’s foreign ministry last year denied UN reports of torture and abuse, without addressing specifics. “These unilateral and unfounded allegations are persistently advanced based on such unverified data,” she said in October.
LOST GENERATION
Arrests, torture and conscription, as well as displacement in and out of Myanmar, “disproportionately affected the younger generation,” the UN said in a report last year.
It is estimated that between 300,000 and 500,000 young people have fled the country, which has a population of about 51 million, since the coup, according to the UN Development Program.
When the repression of 2021 began, Shwe Theingi left Yangon. Wutt Yee Aung remained, participating in the resistance against the junta until she was arrested in September 2021.
After a junta court convicted her on charges that included rebellion and sedition, she was sentenced to seven years in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison.
Through letters and the occasional phone call, she stayed in touch with her family and Shwe Theingi.
“Mother, I hope you are well,” said Wutt Yee Aung in a letter from prison in February 2024. “I have snacks and medicine, so please transfer 200,000 kyat.”
The handwritten request for about $100 at official exchange rates also contained a list of medications, including some to treat nerve damage and asthma.
It was during interrogation on the fortnight after her arrest that Wutt Yee Aung sustained head injuries, according to Shwe Theingi and the Dagon University Students’ Union, who also said she had no health problems before her imprisonment.
Her health eventually deteriorated so much that she was hospitalized at least once in mid-2025, Shwe Theingi said.
In one undated letter intended for Shwe Theingi, Wutt Yee Aung asked for about $150 for a medical test. “Please don’t tell my mother about this,” she wrote, “I miss everyone.”
Wutt Yee Aung died in prison on July 19, 2025, at the age of 25. Authorities told her family that the cause of death was a heart condition, Shwe Theingi said.
The student union challenged the junta’s version of her death in a statement.
“Because political prisoners were not given adequate medical treatment, the lack of medicine and restrictions on contact with her family, Ma Wutt Yee Aung died in prison at 9.30 pm on July 19, 2025,” she said, using an honorific for her name.
FATAL TRANSFER
Khant Linn Naing’s family learned of his arrest on television news.
The 19-year-old was picked up in December 2021 and accused of inciting people to commit crimes against the state and insurrection. He was detained in Daik-U prison, some 110 km from Yangon, and sentenced by a junta court to 15 years.
In July 2023, his family came forward again, this time with a letter from the correctional authorities, which said that Khant Linn Naing had been shot and killed while trying to escape during a prison transfer.
The contents of the letter were described to Reuters by a family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Reuters also saw a letter sent in June 2023 by prison authorities to the family of another prisoner at Daik-U, which said he was killed after “security personnel fired warning shots” when he tried to escape during a transfer.
A colonial-era rulebook that a lawyer and prison monitor said is still used by corrections authorities allows officers to use weapons such as firearms against inmates trying to escape only when “there is no other means available to prevent the prisoner from escaping,” according to a section of the manual reviewed by Reuters.
No death notice provided further information on the circumstances of the alleged escape attempts and the junta’s information ministry did not respond to requests for specific details.
Khant Linn Naing’s parents were not given access to his remains and, more than two years after receiving the notice, did not hold a funeral, the relative said.
“Because that letter was not very clear, we do not believe that he is dead,” said the person.
PPNM spokesman Thaik Tun Oo said he found it implausible that Khant Linn Naing was trying to escape because prisoners are typically restrained and handcuffed to police officers during a transfer.
He added that his organization had been informed by prison sources that Khant Linn Naing had been subjected to harsh interrogation shortly before the alleged transfer.
In the years after Wutt Yee Aung and Khant Linn Naing protested against the junta, youth uprisings upended politics and toppled governments elsewhere in Asia, including Bangladesh and Nepal.
The Myanmar generals, however, endured. While losing territory in their borderlands, the junta fought back by introducing conscription and expanding air power. This month, a three-phase election concluded that is likely to see a military-backed party take power.
“I wanted to become a news presenter. Wutt Yee wanted to do more volunteer work,” said Shwe Theingi. “Each of us had different dreams.”
(Reporting by Reuters Staff, Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Katerina Ang)