Wai Wai Nu didn’t know she was being arrested when she was being arrested. She was an 18-year-old studying law, and in her mind she thought authorities were taking her, her mom, and her sister to a private place where authorities could question them about the activities of her father Kyaw Min, who they had taken to jail two months prior.
It was 2005, a full 15 years since the 1990 elections when her father was elected to be a member of parliament. The results of those elections, successfully led by Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy, were ignored by the military that ruled Myanmar. Shortly thereafter, Min faced harassment so fierce it forced him to move his family from their home in Western Myanmar’s Rakhine State to Yangon, the former capital and the country’s largest city.
During those first days at Insein Prison, a facility notorious for repressing political dissidents and for its terrible conditions, Wai Wai was filled with equal parts confusion and hope. Because she knew her family hadn’t committed any crimes, there was a constant belief that what was right and just would prevail. That belief began to waver as days became weeks and weeks became months, and her family’s appeals were rejected at every stage. (Courtesy of WNN Interviews Global)
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