Jan 31 (Reuters) – Shwe Thingi was immediately drawn to Wat Yi Aung when he met at the start of his second year at Dagon University in Myanmar in 2019.
The 19-year-old zoology major stood out with his boyish clothes, short hair and an amiable but outspoken personality, Shwe Thingi said. The two young women, active in the student union, quickly became friends.
Around the same time and in the same city, Khant Lin Naing was working in a printing press. He was also pursuing a degree in history at a different university and was involved in the student union.
All three students were part of the first generation in decades of semi-democratic Myanmar to enjoy new freedoms in the commercial capital of Yangon before the February 1, 2021 military coup.
And all three were caught up in the brutal crackdown on 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 imprisoned, where some of them died.
At least 74 political prisoners aged between 18 and 35 have died in custody since the coup, according to previously unreported figures from the Association for the Support of Political Prisoners, whose information on Myanmar is often cited by UN agencies.
The number was confirmed with the Political Prisoners Network of Myanmar (PPNM), which monitors the country’s prison system. According to PPNM, a total of 273 people died while in custody on charges of sedition and rebellion.
Reuters interviewed three aides and relatives of detained students and two prison monitoring groups, and reviewed letters sent by inmates and correctional officers. Together, they provide a complete account of the conditions experienced by Wutt Yee Aung and Khant Linn Naing up to the date of their deaths.
The news agency could not independently verify all the accounts, but they echo allegations by UN investigators last year of “systematic torture, killings and other serious ill-treatment in interrogation and detention centers run by Myanmar’s security forces”.
The junta’s information ministry did not return multiple requests for comment about the abuse allegations.
The military government’s foreign ministry last year rejected UN reports of torture and ill-treatment without specifically addressing them. “These one-sided and baseless allegations are continuously advanced based on such unsubstantiated data,” it said in October.
The lost generation
Arrests, torture and conscription, as well as displacement in and out of Myanmar, “disproportionately affect the younger generation,” the United Nations said in a report last year.
According to the United Nations Development Program, about 300,000 to 500,000 young people have fled the country with a population of about 51 million after the uprising.
When the 2021 crackdown began, Shwe Thenggi left Yangon. Wu Yi Aung participated in the anti-junta resistance until her arrest in September 2021.
After a junta court convicted him of sedition and sedition, he was sentenced to seven years in Yangon’s notorious Insen prison.
She kept in touch with her family and Shwe Thingi through letters and occasional phone calls.
“Mother, I hope you are well,” Wut Yee Aung said in a February 2024 letter from prison. “I’m out of food and medicine, so please transfer 200,000 kyat.”
The handwritten petition, for about $100 at official exchange rates, also included a list of some medications to treat nerve damage and asthma.
It was during questioning a fortnight after his arrest that Wut Yee Aung suffered a head injury, according to Shwe Thingi and the Dagon University Student Union, which also said he had no health problems before his imprisonment.
Her health eventually deteriorated so severely that she was hospitalized at least once inside the prison in mid-2025, Shwe Thingi said.
In an unsolicited letter intended for Shwe Thingi, Wut Yee Aung asked for about $150 for a medical examination. “Please don’t tell my mom about this,” she wrote, “I miss everyone.”
Wutt Yee Aung died in prison on July 19, 2025 at the age of 25. Officials told his family the cause of death was a heart attack, Shwe Thingi said.
The student union challenged the junta’s version of his death in a statement.
“Due to inadequate medical treatment for political prisoners, lack of medicine and restrictions on contact with his family, Ma Woo Yee Aung died in prison at 9.30pm on July 19, 2025,” the honorific used for his name said.
Fatal transfer
Khant Lin Naing’s family learned of his arrest on television news.
The 19-year-old was picked up in December 2021 and charged with inciting people to commit crimes against the state and rebellion. He was held in Daek-U prison, about 110 kilometers from Yangon, and sentenced to 15 years by a junta court.
In July 2023, his family received another shock, this time with a letter from correctional officers, stating that Khant Lin 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 by prison officials to the family of another inmate at Daik-U in June 2023, which said he died after “security personnel fired a warning shot” when he tried to escape during a transfer.
A colonial-era rule book that a lawyer and a prison monitor said is still used by correctional officers “allows officers to use weapons such as guns to stop only inmates trying to escape when no other means are available,” according to a section of the manual reviewed by Reuters.
Neither death notice provided additional information about the circumstances of the alleged escape attempts, and the junta’s information ministry did not respond to requests for specific details.
Khant Lin Naing’s parents were not given access to his remains and have not performed last rites two years after being notified, relatives said.
“Because that letter is so vague, we don’t believe he’s dead,” the person said.
PPNM spokesman Thaik Tun Oo said he found it implausible that Khant Lin Naing was trying to escape because prisoners are usually accompanied by police officers during restraints and transfers.
He added that his organization had been informed by prison sources that Khant Lin Naing had been subjected to strict interrogation before the alleged transfer.
In the years since Wu Yi Aung and Khant Lin Naing opposed the junta, youth uprisings have upended politics and toppled governments elsewhere in Asia, including Bangladesh and Nepal.
However, Myanmar’s generals have endured. As they have lost territory along their borders, the junta has fought back by recruiting and expanding air power. This month, it held three rounds of elections that looked likely to bring the army-backed party to power.
“I wanted to be a news anchor. Wutt Yee wanted to do a lot of volunteer work,” said Shwe Thingi. “We each had different dreams.”
(Reporting by Reuters staff, Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Katrina Ang)
