“It’s not a big issue. It’s just ‘a small dragon case becoming a big dragon case’. Everything has returned to normal now. Everything is okay. There aren’t any problems,” an official from the prison said to Narinjara News when he was contacted by telephone.

However, some problems took place in Sittwe Prison at 8:30 am on October 6 and the jailer received an eye injury while another prison staff received a bruise on his forehead and another bruise above his ear, according to Police Lt-Col Maung Maung Soe from the Rakhine State Police Force.

According to him, the prison staff went to summon an inmate on drug suspicion but he refused to go with them. When the prison staff tried to control him, some inmates hit the prison staff so the prison staff was injured and the riot broke out.

After the riot, the inmates made six demands. The demands are – not to give solitary confinement without proper reason, to give equal rights due to existence of racial discrimination, not to summon and beat up inmates after the cells have been locked up at night, always open the court prayer hall, for prison staff not to discriminate inmates and allow a meeting with a prisoner who has been given solitary confinement.

The director of the Prisons Department, the warden, and six inmate representatives have settled the issue after discussing the demands on October 7.

The Prisons Department’s director-general U Myint Soe has arrived in the Rakhine State due to Sittwe Prison riot and he is investigating the incident. He also plans to inspect Buthidaung Prison.