Adviser to Suu Kyi recalls 'awful' prison conditions

Australian economist spent 20 months in cell exposed to rats

- RACHEL CLUN

From sharing a concrete cell with rats and “horrible black tarantulas” to being chained to a steel chair in a windowless box, Sean Turnell said his more than 20 months as a prisoner in Myanmar was horrific.

The prison cells ranged from rudimentary to terrible. At first, he was held in a box the size of a small shipping container, where he was interrogated and punched. Later he was moved to a sparse cell with an iron barred door which led straight to the elements, allowing Myanmar’s “incredible heat” and monsoonal rain directly into the cell.

“Apart from weather, they’re completely open to other elements so rats and spiders, and centipedes, and awful black tarantulas and scorpions, it’s really awful stuff,” he said. “The cells are not conducive to any sort of comfort at all, they’re really little more than animal pens.”

The Australian economist and former economic adviser to Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi said he used his imagination to escape his confines and took comfort in the small bit of exercise he could get pacing his small cell.